6 Weeds You Never Knew Were Edible
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Inside: Weeds are the gardener’s nightmare but did you know a lot of them are edible? Here are 6 common ones that can used in recipes
For gardens and landscapers, weeds are the enemy – they grow in the wrong place, they look wrong and they kill off the expensive, attractive horticultural stars they are trying to cultivate. Yet from a health viewpoint, a number of weeds are surprisingly beneficial to humans to eat. And while the urge to rush out and grab them from the garden may not quickly overtake you, it is certainly worth a look.
How to safely forage for weeds
One of the safest ways to find edible weeds is to get them from your own garden. But as a keen gardener, you might not have many!
Foraging outside the garden can be done but with a little planning. Never pick anything if there’s any sign that it has been treated with pesticide or anything else. And avoid roadside spots as the fumes from the cars can settle on the plants.
Make sure you have a clear idea of what you are looking for – or a picture on your smartphone. Find weeds that are away from paths and highways (dogs!) and that look healthy. Always clean all the weeds thoroughly before eating or cooking with them.
Broadleaf Plantain
Another weed whose medicinal potential has been known for centuries, Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago major) grows from spring to autumn and are good for overall health as well as for digestive disorders.
They have stems with string-like vein visible on the leaves, while the leaves are hairless and egg-shaped, ranging from 5cm to 30cm in size. It grows anywhere that the ground has been disturbed by humans such as lawns and fields.
Blanching the leaves makes them tender and more edible and can then be frozen to use in soups and stews. Seeds are eaten raw, cooked, and even ground into flour. The dried leaves can make a tasty herbal tea. It offers calcium and a number of vitamins when eaten.
Chickweed
Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a wild plant that produces flowers all the way through spring and summer and then is eaten by many birds, including chickens and hence its common name. It is also a weed that is friendly to other plants because its presence decreases the amount of damage caused by insects.
It has thin stems with white hairs on them and produced small white flowers that are star shaped. It grows in many lawns as well as in pastures and cultivated field as well as in waste areas. Seeds can be purchased to grow your own as well.
The leaves of chickweed plants can be eaten raw in salads or sandwiches. They can also be tossed into soups and stews and both the stem and the flowers can be eaten once they have been cooked. The taste of the leaves is likened to spinach and it is full of good stuff – ascorbic acid, calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper and riboflavin to mention a few.
Dandelion
Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are a common sight around the country with their bright yellow flowers and white seed heads that flutter off in the wind with just a little breeze. Known as ‘clocks’, the seed heads are as unmistakable as the flowers.
You can eat all part of the plant. Flowers are edible and are often used to make dandelion wine while the leaves go into salads, sandwiches and pies. They can be a little on the bitter side, so be aware. The roots are used in stir fry dishes or with other vegetables.
Dandelion tea
A simple way to use these weeds is to make a dandelion tea with them. Pick some fresh dandelions and pop them in a colander. Remove any leaves and stems for other recipes. Rinse well.
Grab 1 cup of hot water and some sugar or sweetener of your choice. You can also add something like dried raspberry leaf if you like. Stir the dandelion and other ingredients into the hot water and leave for 5-8 minutes then strain.
You may want to add a little more sweetener and another great addition is the juice of 3-4 limes per 3 quarts of water.
Lamb’s Quarter
Lamb’s Quarter (Chenopodium album) is an annual plant also called wild spinach and has a dusty, white powdery coating on its leaves. It is good in the garden because it help get the nutrients back in the soil and is prolific, producing some 75,000 seeds per plant.
The leaves, shoots, flowers and seeds can all be eaten and it is often found in the garden, in lawns and on the roadside. It does contain a substance called oxalic acid so if you are eating raw, make sure you don’t eat too much.
It can be used in place of spinach in dishes such as lasagne or ravioli as well as in salads and even smoothies. It can also be added into soups.
Nettle
Not many of us escape childhood without a few encounters with the common nettle (Urtica dioica) and therefore the sight of it usually encourages us to go the other way. But the nettle has been used for hundreds of years to treat different ailments as well as to make dishes such as nettle soup and tea.
The leaves, stem and roots are all edible and the young leaves taste the best. Whenever you pick a nettle, never eat it until it has been dried or cooked, as the stinging hairs will still do their thing. It is found all over the place but for the best young leaves, check out shadows tracks in late summer.
Nettle does well in the place of spinach to make soup or even a pesto. The young shoots have even been used to make beer and a tea is made using the root known for its benefits for those with urinary problems.
It is rich in iron and vitamin C and can help the body in its production of haemoglobin. Externally it is used for muscle pain and to treat conditions such as eczema, arthritis and gout.
Nettle Juice
You can use nettle in a tea similar to dandelion but for something a little different, you could make juice it. Grab a bunch nettles, two Swiss chard leaves, an apple, ¼ pineapple and 1 lemon.
Clean the weeds (make sure you wear gloves to avoid those stingers!) then peel the lemon. If there’s rind on the pineapple, remove it. Pop everything into a high powered blender and mix. Strain into a glass and serve.
Purslane
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) started out as a plant of ancient Persia and has spread around the temperate world. Its use in cooking isn’t a new thing and has been used for thousands of years as a salad or herb.
It is a low growing weed that turns up at the edges of lawns or the gap in paving slabs and has smooth, oar-shaped leaves.
The plant works well with or in place of lettuce as the leaves as crispy and chewy, as are the stews and have a mild lemon taste. It is popular in south east Asian dishes where it is stir fried with flavour such as chilli or ginger. Researchers at the University of Texas say it has the highest amount of omega-3 of any edible plant and also has good amounts of vitamins E and C as well as a cancer-inhibiting antioxidant called melatonin.
Edible weeds
I guess for a lot of us edible or not, we aren’t going to encourage weeds in the garden! But if we do spot these edible weeds growing in the garden, at least there’s something useful to try with them.
