Palm heart

Palm Heart

Also known as hearts of palming or palm cabbage, the palm heart is the bud or terminal shoot of various palms. Palm hearts tend to be expensive, because harvesting in the wild kills the tree, although some cultivated trees such as peach palms grow multiple buds, thereby allowing the palm hearts to be harvested and the tree to continue growing.

The firm, cream-coloured flesh has a mild flavour somewhat reminiscent of asparagus. It is good served in salads, hot in a sauce, or fried. Fresh palm hearts are rarely available, but prepared canned hearts are fairly common.