About the Recipe
Mitsuba is most widely used in soups in Japan but if, like me, you like the taste and the decorative little trefoil leaves, you might like to use it as a garnish for your salads or noodles. Mitsuba is quite easy to grow but it prefers some shade as the spindly little stems do wither under a full sun.
Ingredients
1 packet mitsuba seeds (these are also called Japanese parsley)
1 seed tray with potting compost
extra potting compost
water for misting
Preparation
place 3 - 4 mitsuba seeds in each pod of the tray and cover with a sprinkling of potting compost
mist & leave in a sheltered spot indoors until the seeds germinate (this should occur between 7 - 10 days). make sure to keep the compost damp
when the seeds have germinated, prick out the strongest seedlings and transfer to small pots
after 3 - 4 weeks, the seedlings should be 8 - 10 cms / 3 - 4 inches tall. they can now be planted out in a sheltered position. (mitsuba thrives best out of full sun)
leaves should be ready to harvest after a further 4 - 6 weeks and will regrow until autumn. (mitsuba is a hardy perennial so cut plants back - you can save the seed heads - and mulch in late autumn and you’ll enjoy fresh growth next year)