The World's Most Expensive Vegetable Is Hard To Find

It's no secret that shopping for organic produce can get pricey, but vegetables are not typically associated with the sky-high price tags of products like caviar, prime cuts of steak, and stinky European cheeses. However, the world's most expensive vegetable regularly sells for well over $1,000 a kilogram (or nearly $500 a pound), putting it in a league with luxury delicacies like the priciest cheese on earth. No, this valuable veggie isn't a golden asparagus or a gourmet Italian tomato — in fact, it's part of a plant that millions of people eat (or rather, drink) on the daily: hop shoots.

Hop shoots are the tips of the hop plant that shoot up from the ground in spring. The tender, asparagus-like tendrils are harvested from the bits of the hop plant that don't produce the cone-shaped flowers used to give IPAs their signature bitter taste. In other words, hop shoots are essentially an exceptionally expensive byproduct of the beer industry.

So, why the heck do these little green tendrils cost hundreds of bucks a pound? Hop shoots are prohibitively expensive for several reasons. For one thing, they're incredibly tedious to harvest. Collecting hop shoots requires painstakingly searching for and trimming the tiny tendrils for hours, all for a measly bagful of the pricey plant. What's more, hop shoots can only be harvested during a short window, typically between March and April. Basically, hop shoots are extraordinarily difficult to find and harvest on the ground, which makes them hard to find (and extremely expensive) on the market.

Taste-wise, like most vegetables, hop shoots are not everyone's cup of tea, but their uniquely bitter, nutty flavor makes them a sought-after delicacy in countries like Belgium and the Netherlands. If you're lucky enough to get your hands on some hop shoots, the bitter tendrils can be treated similarly to asparagus and other green veggies. They are excellent simply sautéed in butter, mixed into pasta or frittata, or even pickled. If you're not ready to drop hundreds of dollars a pound on hop shoots but still want to level up your veggie game, here are the best tricks for making vegetable dishes more exciting.