As you may or may not know, there are plenty of edible wild plants few take advantage of, so I wanted to take some time to educate interested parties. Right around now is when to look out for a smorgasbord of edible wild greens. This year I decided to try a plant referred to as Winter cress or "Creecy Greens". It is similar to broccoli in flavor with a hint of the hot and/or bitter flavor found in arugula or radish. (It's no wonder because it, along with all mustards like it belong to the same Brassicaceae family that broccoli, radish, cabbage, and bok choy belong to.)
Here's what it looks like:
Notice the Broccoli-like floret:
These plants should be harvested for consumption or preservation by freezing not long after the formation of the florets. Before too long, the stalks get long and woody - no longer tender and delicious.
Here is some Garlic Mustard. It has a similar flavor, but when cooked alone does not have the "al dente" texture the winter cress does, but then again Garlic Mustard is
everywhere and more free greens can't hurt.
This is trout lily. A nice little yellow flower will eventually grow alongside of this leaf. The leaves are a nice (free) addition to salads.
This is a japanese knotweed sprout. The sprouts of this highly invasive, difficult to kill species can be used like rhubarb - adds a nice sour compliment to various
recipes, and is actually very nutritious.
These are wild onions, wild leeks, or "ramps". They are a lot like chives (or "onion grass"), sometimes with a small added "hot" flavor.
Here's my bounty for the day - a mix of winter cress and garlic mustard.
To prepare, make sure to wash it well in a large vessel of water. These just push up through the soil, and carry a bunch of it on the leaves.
A salad spinner is a handy tool for this job:
Make sure to prepare quite a bit, because they cook down a great deal. I started off with a few cloves or garlic and enough olive oil to liberally cover the bottom of the pan. Use more if cooking with a wok.
Just as the garlic starts smelling real good, stuff as much of it as you can into your cooking vessel and cover. Wait a bit for it to cook down, and add some more. Add a little water or cooking wine to it at this point and cover to create a steaming effect within the pan.
When everything in the pan is bright green, I chose to add a bit of salt, but you could choose to be done, or add some soy sauce.
I had some leftover quinoa so I put it on that and ate it. Using it on rice, pasta, as a side dish, with some some bread, or as a pizza topping works too.
Here's a
huge list of edible wild plant recipes to dig into if you're interested. Happy experimenting, and don't eat poison ivy or things that don't taste good to you. Some of these things are not for the faint of pallet. With my recent love affair with locally brewed IPAs, adding bitter food as well is all the more delightful. Going to try to brew some IPA with my own hops this summer...more on that later!
