GUAJE - How to use this tasty but invasive bean 

If you enjoyed this episode, check out my review on the STINK BEAN: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3YHK2a-dygc.htmlsi=WtBGs6W1ya-XdRRX

Mimosine is a non-protein amino acid. Cooking doesn't destroy amino acids, just denature proteins (and peptides). Ruminants can be inoculated with microbes that can use it, and adapt to eating Mimosid legumes like Leucaenia and guaje that contain the toxin, but we are monogastric, can't really digest/use that amino acid. As with ODAP and lathyrism, small, infrequent amounts probably won't distort enough of our proteins to become dangerous, but it should never be a major component of the diet for humans and other monogastric animals (e.g. pigs, poultry). Not sure how effective hindgut fermenters (horse, cuy, rabbit) are at adjusting to it, but since it is microbial fermentation that detoxifies it, they can probably adjust if introduced to it gradually.(So that the specific microbes can establish and proliferate in their colons as in the rumens of ruminants.)

In Malaysia, We call it petai belalang( grasshopper stink bean) we use it in nasi kerabu here in kelantan

In Texas we have these everywhere and I never realized they were edible

We grow these in my front yard. They're a staple in much of oaxacan cooking. There are 2 types, the red which are seasonal and the green which give all year round. You can even eat the nubs the guajes branch from called "titis" (teetees). It's got an earthy taste, it's great to make salsa de guaje in a chile. It's a great garnish as well and you usually eat a bunch with your food. I personally can't eat mole w/o having a couple guaje pods on hand.

Guajes make a wonderful salsa Verde. My ex girlfriends mother gave me some once to make enchiladas Verdes with and it was some of the best salsa Verde I've ever had.

Bro!! Thank you for this video. My wife is Thai and they eat the young leaves of this plant with oysters. They call it ga tin but have never been able to figure out what the Latin name was. When you eat the young leaf by itself it just tastes like any other leaf. But when you eat it with a raw oyster it becomes sweet, it's really good.

we called them petai cina in my country. i love them steamed with grated coconut , grind chilli, bay leaves, garlic shallot and some anchovies + a dash of palm sugar, steamed in a banana leaf wrap. eat with hot rice is heaven on earth

The "guaje" seed pods are sold in Mexican food stores in my area in produce section. These are popular as a snack peeling and eating the seeds raw. The state of Oaxaca is named for the "guaje". I was married to a lady from Oaxaca and learned this from her family.

funny- I thought 'that's just a mimosa!' so I went and looked it up- I knew they were fodder, but I didn't know that folks ate them too! I also didn't know that acacia was a mimosid! that's super interesting. you always provide such interesting diversions!

Eating invasive always feels good.

Fun episode! This makes me want to see if I can track them down at a Mexican market and make something from them myself! Also...your kitty is adorable! It's so sweet how much you clearly love him (her?)! 😻💖🐾

Thai people do eat this in Khanom Jeen. it may not widely seen these day cost it a bit pricey when compare to other veggies but any family who made Khanom Jeen themselves often serving it with Khanom Jeen. tho i prefer it a bit younger when it's seed still not developed much.

I'm a gardener in US zone 8a and love to hear about edible invasive things so they are hard to kill in the droughts and natural disasters my area faces. The heat has killed some things that were supposed to be unkillable like yellow nut-sedge and horseradish. And even the chayote squash, asparagus bean, and balloon vine have failed to establish and grow in my container garden. The wild stuff here doesn't taste very good to me, I took a class where we found and tasted wild herbs, mesquite tree seeds, pine needle tea, acorns and a few water-plants... but is was all pretty astringent tasting or very tough to chew. In an emergency, I think I'd be looking for insects and quail to eat instead of tough dessert plants. The one exception being maybe nopales... which can give one the runs if you eat too much. I've managed to grow things like stinging nettles, a mullberry tree that isn't doing as well now that it's hit the salty ground water in my area (ancient pink salt deposits in Utah are the biggest in the country), sweet potato and a strain of wild asparagus I gathered locally. I grow heirloom small striped melons from Saudi Arabia and Carrots from Japan that are extra heat-tolerant. Can you do a video for gardeners pointing out some of the varieties that would be hard to kill and produce lots of edible food for humans/animals for each climate type? The dessert heat where I live is just a hard place to get things going and I could use some more 'invasive' types. And I know in the humid South they have big problems with insects and fungus on a lot of the 'typical' garden crops that we're used to from Europe. It would be great if we could grow more new-world foods here that we aren't as familiar with, I understand many of them are nutritious but they're hard to find fresh anywhere for me to try to see if they're worth growing. And where I live, it can take years to get fruit so I don't want to invest the time/space/energy to something that's going to taste bitter or too acidic. I didn't like amaranth greens too much, but it might be the heat that turned them kinda bitter and almost soapy tasting to me. My corn was very stunted and small no matter what kind I grew, but that could be because they just don't like being in big containers and really needed more insulation by being in the soil (I don't have that luxury where I live - I've used big, deep above ground pots, the biggest I could build 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide with Olas for constant evaporative cooling, Hugelculture to provide a sponge for water at the bottoms and painting the sides white to reduce heat plus wood shavings as mulch). I still have to water twice a day to keep things from curling up and dying. Thanks for being the taste-tester and chef for English speakers who are curious about the world's edible plants! I have certainly used your videos in the past to learn about these less popular and sometimes forgotten indigenous foods

Looked up guaje, as it looked very similar to mesquite beans (also in the fabaceae family), as did the leaves on the tree that were shown. It's also called wild tamarind. In Texas we use mesquite bean for jelly, but the pods can be ground to obtain a "flour", and has healthy properties and is gluten free. The guaje proves the pea family certainly has a lot of variety. Great video!

This is my favorite bean. I would say it is a mild version of stink bean.

I think this video more than many others will inspire people to go out and try these. These trees are everywhere.

You are the best channel out there man I've been a a fan for years I love unusual fruits and have a collection myself, if you are ever in Victoria Australia I'll be more than happy to show ya some of the local edible fruits.

Avocado is not traditionally used to make Guaxmole (Huaxmole or Mole de Guaje) it's a sauce to pour over a dish. Salsa de Guajes is my favorite dip to make. I have a rotisserie basket for my air fryer and slow roast them for use as a dry seasoning.

It's called selong in java. Usually used in sayur asem, so refreshing in hot days.

i just had that for lunch earlier today in coconut based dish called "botok", we call them lamtoro in indonesia, didnt know they came from faraway land since i've know them since my childhood. learned something new everytime i watch your vids. very informative 👍

What I know personally at this plant is great food for ruminants like goats and cows in the Philippines. I only recently learn that it can be eaten, when I was in Israel for agricultural training there the thais farm worker eat this bean raw with young leaf or shoots of guaje, core of banana trunk, green banana and dip it on chilli powder with msg, ground toasted rice and other spices.

You should review huitlacoche! It’s a fungus that grows on corn and it is delicious in quesadillas 😊

I live in Israel, and these trees are EVERYWHERE! People seem to hate them because they drop their pods everywhere, and seeds come up in all kinds of random areas. It's good to know that you can eat them. I'll be doing some foraging!

Cat representation improves every video.

In Hawaii they call it Haole Koa. We joked that a friend lost his hair from eating Haole Koa pods and flowers. Green seeds like you had them is best and I think the least toxic. Cooking is probably a good idea. Aloha!

What a cool flower !!!

I always thought these were poisonous. Grows everywhere in the Philippines.

Interesting. Thanks! I've seen guaje for sale at Berkeley Bowl (a fancy supermarket in Berkeley, CA), but I've never known how to use it. I once asked an employee there, and he said it was medicinal.

when is the cookbook? 👀 Prob in a few years you'll have accumulated enough exotic fruit recipes for that. 😁

I love that we have the same fabulously cheap and wonderful porcelain bowls 😊 This one was great! We had those everywhere in Texas growing up. Looks so interesting. ❤ Nicole

I remember seeing a tree with bean pods that looked similar to stinkbean growing in front of a supermarket in my town, and I think this is what it was! I'll have to stop by and pick some pods when spring/summer rolls around and give it a shot.

They look a lot like pumpkin seeds. I bet you could use these as a substitute for them

Never knew those were edible! They're everywhere in Hawaii.

My mother-in-law makes a delicious stew called Huaximole with guajes and beef short ribs.

Those are all over south Georgia. They grew wild in the woods behind my elementary school. Some kids would pick them at recess and eat the seeds if they could get away with it without the teacher noticing.

In Thailand, GUAJE seeds are eaten with a spicy papaya salad and eat new leaves with chili paste.

A unprompted cat lap sit? Yeah thats an easy like from me

I want to see him get in regular contact with Green Dean so very badly. The possibilities are functionally endless.

Glad I discovered your channel. So interesting.

These grow everywhere in malaysia. We call them grasshopper stinkbean

It's a regular addition to some of our Japanese cooking, been eating those since I was a kid..in fact I just ate those, it has unique taste you can eat them raw, I usually eat those raw with sambal (crushed chili mixed with garlic and salt)

I used to have these in my garden growing up. Those trees grow so fast, but they are nice trees.

Sounds right tasty for something you find foraging!

Beans are always good

My mom has a bunch of these in our yard we will eat them so much

We grow Guaje here in Austin, Texas, it’s at the edge of its cold hardiness here but nonetheless has become locally naturalized, although it is native not far away in Monterrey.

Omg, I can't get these trees to stop growing in my yard! It's the only tree I've ever tried to remove, but it just keeps coming back *and multiplying.* It somehow spread from the back yard all the way to the front yard, just magically jumping over my house. But hey, maybe I can start eating it and stop hating it so much now.

There are so many different “bean pod” trees here in Guadalajara including the Guaje. I took some samples to a Vivero (nursery) where they said only the Guaje was edible. They seemed to think there was two types of Guaje: a much longer one that was not edible & has a slightly different name.

fun facts,the wood of this tree good for art making,it has a beautiful nwtural yellow color on it,in malaysia we use the wood for making spintops

We call it Ipil-ipil. We were told it is edible but we dont really know how to prepare. It's wood is good for making huts and for charcoal.

this sounds entertaining. i am going to have to try tracking these down. thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Looks a lot like Locust out here, a thorny TREE that spreads through roots and produces much fuller pods that make great forage. I believe the Locust is related to legumes. The thorns on our trees can be so big the thirns have thorns. Forage is both leaves and pods, my goats will score the trunks with their horns and lick the sap in spring. I noticed one tree with a deep gouge that is about halfway through the tree.

We have them nearly everywhere in Malaysia, we often call it serai petai, basically grass stinkbean. I use to eat it raw it's kinda bland but i heard people use the leaves for a bunch of stuff

I want popped guaje so much now. I will be on the lookout for these. 💛

The whole bean is edible while it's tender... The way you have it(seeds) are also tasty. It's a seasonal delicacy in my cuisine

Those are good. The leaf sprouts are also good.

I picked one up a few years ago, my friend's mom said she used to eat the seeds when she was little in Mexico.

I love the taste, it reminds me of stink bean but milder. My mum said, the young shoots taste just like the beans too.

I wish we had tried this roasted in Thailand! My breath reeked of funky garlic astringency the rest of the next 3 days.

hey i've been watching you for many years, love all the episodes. i have a weird request... could you do another stop motion video at some point? i still remember that one, it was great!

see this plant at Malaysia as well... even my local garden had plenty of this tree, is everywhere. i once met Malay & Indonesian ladies having gathering chatting about cooking recipes with this "Petai" , so i give my self a try, it is related but too tiny to be high 😂😂😂 i prefer the stink bean. This tree usually planted by crow, and a lot of crow will lived in this tree, so this proof that this plant is a stable tree to lived with intelligent bird. I found crow eating it too. Also the most messy tree ever seen with this crow in it. Is like a cheap low raised apartment type of feeling but in bird version, lolx, easy to spotted in city and loud annoying tree during evening.

Thought I had seen these around southern California. will have to start harvesting them next time I'm down there

Awesome video, we have a plant, I’ll toast some seeds and try it!

Aint that a type of acacia tree? I have seen these pods a lot in Montevideo Uruguay but everyone ignores them there.

It reminds me of mimosa trees.

UGH!!! Born and raised in Hawaii and here those things are called “haole koa!” They are such a pest, growing all over the place, including my yard. I can tell you nobody I know here eats it.

I'll never get tired of your videos or your cats!!!

If only there was a solution to this delicious problem.

We also use it in a soup here in Indonesia, but what's interesting is we don't even bother getting the beans out of the pod 🤣🤣 (we still cut it into bite sized strips though) so there's just strips of those things floating in your soup, weird!

Steve has bird of prey sight i swear hahahaha

I did some research. Leucaena retusa is the hardiest species of Leucaena being hardy to USDA Zone 7. It is a small tree at 20 ft tall and 15 ft wide. The pods and leaves are edible. It can be grown from seed. I am going to plant a row of this tree along one of my property lines. My lot has a mixture of clay and sandstone chunks with little in organics so a legume that can fix its own nitrogen is exactly what my soil needs. I also am interested in growing my own food. The USA has native food trees but unfortunately a lot of them suitable for my climate are thorny and/or labor intensive.

The slight funk bean as opposed to the stink bean.

Thanks for info on the toxin, my family doesn't make it often(liked your deconstructed guaje mole` with aguacate), but I've never seen parents soaking it, but definitely boiling the mole` sauce, here I thought there was more flavor in semi cooked sauce...also boggles the mind on whom thought it was a good idea to introduce it in other places if it's invasive, but curry-mole` does sounds tasty.

Probably should have SEEN that coming... Should Have SEEN that.

Whaaaaaaat. These grow everwhere in the Philippines but I never knew it was being cultivated as food in some places. O_O I should try plucking some when I see one. lol.

My mind is blown you can eat this. I paid cash money to have it removed and I'm constantly pricking out seedlings. The pods have just gone brown here but next time they're green, it's gonna get et. Shouldn't be long because it seems to never stop seeding.

I wonder how those compare to locust tree seeds? The pods and the leaves look very similar except the tree gets very big. I haven't noticed that plant around here, but locust trees are a real nuisance.

@9:20 was seriously just thinking that almost anything works for stir fry! Some hen of the woods would have been great in that. And chili flakes.

Should we call those pop-beans? xD pop-corn ... pop ..

Wow I grew up with bunches of these always on the table in a cup of water and we ate them daily. I never knew they contained toxins. They are distinct but we would add them to our tortillas when eating. Like i.e. a tortilla with some beans and carne then we would add the seeds like a topping or just munch on them like appetizers, almost like edamame 🫛

Guajemole made me laugh dammit

Great to see you both in the video each bringing your own strengths into play.

Oh those look like mimosa beans

These grow wild all over Southern California, looking forward to trying it out

Cat very cute in the box

Thank you. I saw these recently and am curious about them. I am a vegan for love.

Never know you can eat it we call it River Tamarind or Miamossie. We feet it to rabbits cows sheep and also pigs they say it makes the pork lean not very fatty

General appearance similar to Mimosa tree leaves and pods. Mimosine... Hmmm.

in malaysia we called this petai belalang

Bowie's arrest photo on a shirt

These are in my backyard growing wild

love your foraging videos. very informative, and could save lives!

Yo, I never knew you could eat this!

We had a tree in front of our house, but sadly my dad cut it. My grandma makes salsa with the guajes

Where I live mostly it used as animal food especially for goats

I just noticed the kitty corner going on. They fit so they must sit 🤷‍♂️

my grandma would toast them and mix it with salt and chile powder

We eat them in Thailand too!

Another great episode, Jared! I never knew these could be eaten.