Winged Bean Tomato Salad from the Kahului Farmer's Market

Winged beans!  A vegetable sold at the Kahului Farmer's Market.

Occasionally, in a fit of daring, I buy strange looking vegetables because they stare back at me. When I was at the Kahului Farmer's Market, the one near Ah Fook's Market and near the Revive Consignment Shop on Pu'unene, I saw these frilly green pods.  The Filipino farm stand worker said they were winged beans. Beans!  Instead of making everything clear - beans, use them like beans, it muddied the waters in my head because they don't look like beans. Do they even taste like beans?

I ended up buying just a few to try them out in a recipe that she provided me.  

A handful of winged beans - steamed as instructed.

I lightly steamed some winged beans, about 12 beans, probably for less than a minute. They turned color and darkened.

I chopped up the winged beans... and there are little beans inside. 

They tasted different from green beans - not like asparagus, and not like anything else I've had... Definitely green tasting, but with a slightly puckery taste. Not a sour taste, but a little astringent. 

Then I chopped up about two medium roma tomatoes and added some papaya seed salad dressing. Use any dressing on hand.

The finished product, winged beans and tomatoes. 

I didn't make a lot because I didn't want to have dying winged beans doing a swan song in my fridge. This was really enough for one person, maybe two. The salad was good enough for DH to eat, and once the dressing was on it, I didn't notice any puckery taste.