Wildcrafting: Edible Wild Greens Recipes

Edible wild greens are delicious and nutritious. Read Wildcrafting: Medicinal Wild Plants to learn more about all the edible wild greens you can cook with and then try them out in the recipes below.

  • Salad. Except for nettles, which must be cooked, any edible wild greens may be included in a salad. Try adding just a few different varieties at first to accustom yourself to their taste. If the ones you want don’t grow in your area, try the produce section of your local health-food store.
  • Steamed greens. Rinse the greens well; put them in a pan with a few dashes of tamari, soy sauce or herbed vinegar. Cover and steam until tender.
  • Green soup. Sauté a chopped onion and 1 teaspoon of curry powder in a bit of olive oil. Add three washed, chopped potatoes and 2 cups of washed, chopped greens. Add water and cook till the potatoes are tender. Puree most of the soup in a blender or with a hand mixer; leave the rest chunky to vary the texture. Salt to taste.
  • Eggs Florentine. Put chopped greens in a skillet with a few tablespoons of cream cheese. Stir until the greens begin to cook. Make 4 hollows in the greens; crack 4 eggs into each of these “nests.” Cover and cook till the eggs are done. Season with salt and perhaps a dash of hot sauce.
  • Chip Dip. Blend clean, chopped greens (except nettles) into yogurt, sour cream, or tofu. Season with lemon, garlic, salt, and chopped toasted onion to make a dip.
  • Substitute wild greens for spinach in lasagna, quiche, samosas, calzones and turnovers.
  • Sauté greens with ginger and garlic until tender. Serve with rice.
  • Sauce. Blend wild greens into mushroom sauce, in a cream sauce, or in a dairyless version made with rice milk or nut milk.
  • Polenta. Sauté greens with garlic, tomatoes, onion, and green pepper; serve with polenta.
  • Crepes. Fill crepes with greens; top with mushroom sauce.
  • Stiry Fry. Add greens at the last few minutes of cooking a stir-fry with onions, carrots, and other vegetables.
  • Soufflé. Try a soufflé with wild greens.
  • Green Loaf. Mix two cups of chopped greens with 2 cups of leftover rice, a half-cup of sautéed onions, and a few tablespoons of sunflower seeds. Bake in a loaf pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
  • Cajun greens. Stir-fry the greens with onions and curry powder or a Cajun spice blend.
  • Sandwich. Perk up sandwiches with raw wild greens (except nettles)–use them in place of lettuce.
  • Pesto. Make a wild green pesto by blending 2 cups of wild greens,
    • 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic and
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt. (This even works with raw nettles!) Add
    • 1/2 cup pine nuts before serving over pasta or on crackers.

Brigitte Mars is an herbalist from Boulder, Colorado. She is the author of Dandelion Medicine (Storey, 1999), Addiction Free Naturally (Healing Arts, 2001), and Natural First Aid (Storey, 1999). She teaches at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies and also hosts Herb Camp for Kids.

  • Published on Mar 11, 2010
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