The Wild Side of Food — Cooking with Wild Greens

As soon as spring comes upon us nature begins to deliver her abundance. But when thinking of wild foods most people tend to be reminded of Autumn and the wild fruit and mushroom harvest available then.

This is probably because many people are almost entirely ignorant of wild greens. The wild plants that can be harvested (often in your own back garden) and consumed.

Indeed, as soon as April turns into May edible wild plants spring into profusion. If you know what to look for then you can probably spot six edible species right in your own back garden. If you venture further afield, to a back lane, for example then with a little practice you will see thirty or more wild plants that are both edible and, more importantly, good to eat.

In fact there are well over a hundred common plants (many of them considered weeds) that you can collect and add to your own recipes. There are as many rarer plants again so that anyone with enough knowledge will be able to gather one wild plant or another all year round. Even in the depths of winter there are enough wild plants in abundance for you to be able to create a hedgerow salad.

Here I present two recipes designed around and incorporating wild spring greens.

Early Spring Salad With Creamy Lemon Dressing

Ingredients:
600g of any wild salad greens, including shepherd's purse, young hawthorn leaves, dandelion leaves, garlic mustard, young ground elder leaves and any other wild greens that you've gathered

360ml olive oil

240ml water

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp fresh ginger

1/2 small onion

juice of 1 lemon

small handful of parsley or coriander

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp turmeric

1 tbs miso

100g any cooked root vegetables (such as potatoes, cassava, yams, common evening primrose root, etc).

Method:
Begin by washing the greens. This is easiest done if you place them in a colander (in batches) before placing the colander in a bowl (make sure that the colander is taller than the bowl) then ryn cold water through the colander. This means that the water will flow through the colander and over the sides of the bowl, taking any dirt with it. But the greens can't escape.

Once washed, pat dry the greens in towels. Do this thoroughly, as salad dressing won't cling to wet greens. Chop the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Meanwhile, place all the liquid ingredients in the blender and mix until incorporated. Now add all the remaining ingredients (except the greens and root vegetables). Render to a smooth puree. Now add the root vegetables and blend to a smooth paste (this will thicken the dressing). Add just enough to achieve your desired consistency.

Toss the salad with the dressing and serve immediately.

A Spring Tart

Ingredients:
80g of spring buds (hawthorn flower and leaf buds, gorse flowers and beech leaves just out of bud)
150g spring greens (the young leaves of primroses, violets and wild strawberries)

12 primrose flowers

80g young spinach
100ml double cream

300ml single cream

60g naples bisket (or any dry sponge cake)

1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
enough pastry for a 22cm pie shell

60g sugar
salt, to taste
freshly-grated cinnamon

Method:
Place the primrose flowers in sugar to partly candy them.

Meanwhile, wash the buds and greens, drain them then chop very small. Add to a pan along with the single and double cream and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3 minutes, or until the greens wilt then take off the heat. Finely chop or grate the naples bisket and stir into the cream along with the sugar, salt and spices. Set aside to cool.
After you have made your pie crust (use either the short-crust for an expensive pie or the standart pie-crust recipes) place in a 22cm pie dish, add dried beans to keep the bottom flat and blind bake in an oven at 200°C for ten minutes.

Whisk the eggs into the cream mixture. Pour this mixture into the part-baked pie crust and dot the surface with butter. Bake the tart in an oven at 170°C for 75 minutes or until the surface turns a golden brown. Take out of the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating the top with the candied primrose flowers.

About the Author

Dyfed Lloyd Evans runs the Celtnet Recipes site which specializes in Wild Food Recipes. If you would like to include more wild foods in your own cooking then why not check-out the Guide to Wild Foods that can help you identify the wild foods you can use in your own cookery.