All the edible plant guides talk about this leggy garden intruder, but they vary on their assessment of taste. Some state that it is not worth the effort of pulling off all the tiny leaves from the stringy stem, others say just eat the stem, still others say it is their favorite salad green.
So this weekend, when we found chickweed had fully infultrated Thag's mother's ivy patch, Thag and his brother helped her weed and collected a gallon ziplock bag full.
Looking at chickweed recipes found lots of variation and I decided to try the chickweed egg salad recipe I found on one of my favorite new websites: http://www.prodigalgardens.info/ . The egg salad was delicious, and the chickweed gave it a delightful herby flavor. I am excited to both try chickweed in new ways and to try more of the recipes found at the Prodigal Gardens site.
Ratings: Chickweed--4, Chickweed Egg Salad--5
We are often finding that an okay edible incorporated into the right recipe can leave us more satisfied than the edible alone, very much the way raw spinach on its own tastes alright but spanikopita is out of this world.
I love that web site, too!
ReplyDeleteI eat a lot of chickweed. A friend lets us keep a patch of it in her garden. She was teasing Denny for weeding the weeds out of his chickweed patch. I eat the chickweed stem and all, and mix it with other greens to make salads. Lately I’ve been making salads with chickweed, sorrel, and orpine. I also wash it and then heat the wet plant for just a minute until it wilts. Then I add it to soups and things instead of cooked spinach.
The right combination of wild edibles can enhance each other as well. A number of weeks ago I enjoyed stir fries of dandelion buds and flowers combined with dried maitake, wild leeks, and more mild greens such as orpine or nettles.
Yum! Those stir-fries sound great. I love dandelions, orpine, leeks, and nettles all. Do you have a preference about which species of chickweed that you eat?
ReplyDeleteI mostly just eat the common chickweed (Stellaria media). The mouse-ear chickweed is tougher in comparison, but maybe I should give it another chance. I notice that I crave different things during different years. It's good to go back and retry things. Sometimes I change my mind.
ReplyDeleteI recently gathered some wild grape leaves that didn't taste so great. I'm not sure if it was the species I gathered or my mood or body's preference. Sometimes things taste better than I remembered, sometimes not so good.
(I hope you saw my comment on your post on processing wild plants.)
Thag, I was wondering if you could contact me. I’m writing on behalf of the visual editor for HouseLogic.com to request your permission to use one of your photos on the site. The photo nicely illustrates a topic we’re writing about. HouseLogic, published by the National Association of Realtors®, covers home ownership-related topics.
ReplyDeleteMy email address is cdodge@realtors.org
Thanks!
Cathy