Don’t Be Bamboozled By Bamboo!

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In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝How do we eat bamboo❞

For context, this question came via our feedback widget on Sunday, and was in response to our This or That segment:

Bamboo Shoots vs Onion – Which is Healthier?

…in which we picked the bamboo, as it outshone onions in every category.

However, culinary traditions vary a lot from place to place, and bamboo is certainly more popular in some areas than others.

First things first: when we say bamboo shoots, we really do mean the shoots, young and healthy. We do not mean:

• Dried bamboo canes of the kind you might use in gardening
• Old bamboo carved like wood, as is often seen in bamboo-based kitchen utensils
• Anything else like that

Think of it like flax; flaxseed is a great source of fiber, protein, and healthy fats, but you wouldn’t eat your bedroom linen (made of the same plant, if it is literally linen, in any case), would you?

Or hemp; hemp seeds are also very nutritious, but you won’t want to eat that hemp-based tote bag you carry your groceries in.

So it is with bamboo: it’s a plant with a lot of uses, and only some of those uses are culinary, and you might be more used to seeing it in the non-culinary uses!

Now, with that in mind, and without further ado…

How to eat bamboo

If, like this writer, you don’t live in a region where bamboo isn’t very popular, fresh bamboo may be hard to find. If that’s the case, you probably find canned bamboo in the Asian foods section of your grocery store, and that’s totally fine and is just as nutritionally good, sometimes even better than fresh.

However, if you’re fortunate enough to live somewhere it is more popular, and/or sometimes go to a city that will have a more cosmopolitan selection of foods than your local stores (this writer lives out in the sticks, and we know we have many readers in rural areas), then fresh bamboo provides a lot more versatility of use.

First, the basics:

1. Take freshly harvested bamboo shoots
2. Peel off the outer sheath
3. Clean the soft inner part with water

And then, either:

• Cut in small pieces, soak in water overnight, discard the water and wash 3–4 times, use the shoots as you like, or
• Slice into small pieces, wash and soak in water for 2–3 hours, boil or fry with meat/fish items, or
• Boil in water for 30–40 minutes, discard water and wash 2–3 times, cut into small pieces, boil or fry with other vegetables

The difference between the latter two is because the other vegetables will take much less cooking, so you need to parboil the bamboo first.

Bamboo is most traditionally used in in stir-fries of various kinds, but really, you can use it however you like, it’s just another vegetable, that can be used much like you might use asparagus, it just takes more prep, that’s all.

And as for the “why”,

You may be wondering: why don’t I just use asparagus then, if it’s better and easier?

And the answer is: by all means, enjoy asparagus, but as we often say, plant diversity is critical for good health in general, and gut health in particular.

See also:

Besides, bamboo has some great beneficial properties of its own, including, for example::

• The potential cholesterol-lowering and prebiotic effects of bamboo shoot dietary fibers and their structural characteristics
• Prebiotic Effects of Bamboo Shoots and Potato Peel Extracts on the Proliferation of Lactic Acid Bacteria
• Health Benefits of Fermented Bamboo Shoots ← if you’d like to get pickling!

For more on that latter, we highly recommend:

Fermenting Everything: How to Make Your Own Cultured Butter, Fermented Fish, Perfect Kimchi, and Beyond – by Andy Hamilton

Enjoy!