Foraging: purselane


I’m not sure if it’s the pandemic bringing out some sort of survival instinct or if it’s just a natural progression of a person with a black thumb who loves picking and eating stuff, but lately I have really taken to foraging. I’ve mostly been looking for dandelions but I stumbled across a huge patch of purselane and I remember finding out about it several years ago. 


Have you ever heard of purselane?  It is usually regarded as a weed but it’s actually an edible herb that is full of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and omega-3. You can find it everywhere, except where people are very very particularly manicuring their lawns. 

It likes all the in between places and it seems to be popping up along the pavement, next to the house, and especially sunny places. 


Since I’ve started increasing the foraging, I’ve been grabbing it by the handful from my yard and the wild places I’ve gone. I started using it in egg scrambles but it’s a bit stalky and the texture isn’t my favorite. (I’ve seen some recipes boiled, and maybe that makes it more tender?). 


The foraging started with dandelions for the whole plant: roots and stems roasted for tea, leaves for a sautée, and I’m saving the flowers for an infused beverage. So I decided all those purselane roots probably had potential and I tried roasting them. It turns out it has a similar flavor to dandelion root (surprise!) with its own unique flavor profile. 

I tried it on its own, with sweetener and milk, and tonite I brewed it with mint leaves, and it definitely plays well with others.  I also put all my purselane into the dehydrator and removed as much of the stems as I could, leaving a seasoning I could use in cooking for the flavor (a bit bitter and earthy) and get the nutrients.  I’m excited to try it, and I was able to re-route the stems for roasting and add them to my tea. In this way, I was using the plant from roots to tip. 


If you are up for an adventure, run out to your back yard and see what you can find!  

I always love to send you to more information- I spend a lot of time researching when something new catches my fancy. Here’s a few quick overviews of purselane, and I saw lots of recipes out there too. See what you can learn! 

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/purslane/edible-purslane-herb.htm

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/purslane

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waste reduction: Pineapple

Image
I’m sure that everyone has a favorite pineapple recipe. Pineapple upside down cake, Humming Bird Bake, Carrot Cake (with or without is a huge debate, right?). Everyone knows what to do with the sweet yellow meat inside, but did you know that is just a fraction of what you can get out of your fresh pineapple?   Usually, if I’m cutting a pineapple up, it’s to dehydrate pineapple circles or chunks. My husband likes it that way, it’s a quick easy snack, and it stores well.  I break the top off, slice the bottom off, and remove the skins. Then I slice it thin enough to use a small circular cookie cutter to remove the core. The core is tasty but fibrous and unpleasant to chew. So it goes with the skins.  I try to make circles purely out of vanity but it dries just fine in chunks and since it inevitably breaks apart, I get about 50-50.  Those get a gentle dry for 24-48 hours at 125-130oF   Next, the crowns. If you are good with plants, you can set the crown in water an...
Read more

Welcome to Moonlady’s kitchen

As my first post, I want to invite you to follow both my business page Moonlady's Kitchen and my food adventures here.  On the business page will tell you what is fresh or what specials I’m doing then.  (If I have a bounty I love to share- if it’s a product I’ll make a deal, and if it’s an adventure or an experiment I’m always looking for the adventurous to taste test for me).  I do several categories of items for sale Candied fruits (fruit+sugar) Dried fruits with no additional ingredients unless noted Jam and pickles (new-ish so still working the details out) Dried Herbs Hand (or body) scrubs  To see a List and prices, please check my product page:   https://www.themoonlady.com/p/moonladys-kitchen-product-page.html?m=1 I also want to walk you through my process.  The things that motivate me are reducing waste, eating food that is free of a lot of crazy additives, and finding new and interesting ways to change how I think about food.  My candied orang...
Read more

Fertile Ground: grapes and children

Image
To preface all this, my mom is a public school teacher so I have always had an appreciation for teachers, and for all the work that goes into it during the school day and all the other hours of the day. This blog post is because of her influence.  My daughter just recently started back at in person school at a private school near our house. We decided early in the summer because virtual had gone so badly for her. (She is definitely not designed to sit in front of a screen and attend for an extended period of time. Still, I’m a mom and I worry like it’s my job. Actually, it is my job, so I’m doing just fine. So I was sort of looking for some comforting sign that we were doing the right thing, and maybe a reminder that putting my faith in this was going to be okay.   When we drove over to the school to do the socially distanced meet the teacher (strictly spaced out so only one family at a time and everyone masked) on the way there, I thought I noticed some grape vines. Of course...
Read more