HOME & LIVING
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — B3
Home cooking
Edible plants you
might have in your
own yard
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Outdoorsman and writer
Euell Gibbons famously
said that the naturally
sweet fl avor of Grape-Nuts
cereal “reminds me of wild
hickory nuts.”
The implication, of
course, is that he had eaten
wild hickory nuts and that,
by extension, you almost
certainly hadn’t. Which is
true, at least in my case.
Gibbons’ whole schtick
was that he went around
eating nuts and berries and
God knows what else that
most of us would never
even think of eating, and
that they were nutritious
and delicious — even if
they didn’t remind him of
popular breakfast cereals.
That would be funny,
though. “This lichen
reminds me of Post Toas-
ties.” “The bark of this
Giant Sequoia reminds me
of Cap’n Crunch.”
Gibbons died in 1975,
but his spirit lives on in
anyone who sees something
growing and thinks, “That’s
an unusual plant I might
want to eat.”
The fact is, the number
of edible plants is far
greater than the number of
plants that we typically con-
sume. And that is good to
know if you are starving
and in a forest.
This week, I decided to
try some foods scavenged
from plants that are rea-
sonably easy to fi nd and
turn out to be surprisingly
edible.
Such as sunfl owers. Sun-
fl owers have recently been
discovered to be edible by
the world of TikTok, after
a viral Facebook post from
Missouri’s Baker Creek
Heirloom Seed Co., and
now half the world goes
around grilling the heads of
sunfl owers.
I decided to follow the
trend to see if grilled sun-
fl ower heads were any
good.
It turns out that they
aren’t bad at all. Everyone
says they are reminiscent
of corn, but to me they are
more of a cross between an
artichoke and a handful of
roasted sunfl ower seeds.
The trick is getting the
sunfl owers in the right
season. The fl owers should
be well past their peak, with
the petals falling off , or just
about to. You pull off the
petals, if there are any, and
use your fi ngers or thumbs
to brush away the fuzzy
yellow fl ower part of the
fl ower. What remains is an
edible pod holding up to a
thousand or more sunfl ower
seeds. The shells on these
seeds should still be soft, or
it will be unpleasant to eat.
Cooking them is a snap.
Just brush the pod with
olive oil and season with
plenty of salt and pepper.
TikTokers like to come up
with other toppings, from
sundried tomato oil to
garlic, but I kept my version
simple. Sometimes, simple
is best.
One easily foraged food
that is surprisingly fl a-
vorful, in a good way, is
purslane.
Purslane is a weed that
grows practically every-
where. It is often found in
the cracks in sidewalks or
in gravel or just about any-
where that other plants
don’t usually grow. My wife
grows it in a pot because it
is pretty.
But it is also delicious
and, because it is absolutely
full of vitamins, minerals
and antioxidants, it is actu-
ally one of the most nutri-
tion-dense foods you can
eat. It does have a little
oxalic acid in it, though, so
if you suff er from kidney
stones, it is probably best
not to eat too much of it.
Purslane is a succulent,
and its leaves, stems and
fl owers are all edible. You
can cook it (try scrambling
it in eggs) or eat it raw. I
chopped mine up raw and
put it in a simple cucum-
ber-tomato salad; that way,
the purlsane’s pleasant salty
and lightly sour fl avor really
came through.
If there is a weed that is
more prevalent than purs-
lane, it is dandelions. Dan-
delions are more prevalent
than anything. After the
nuclear apocalypse or the
alien destruction, all that
will be left on Earth will
be cockroaches roaming
through the dandelions.
Which is fortunate for
them, because dandelion
leaves are edible. They were
actually in vogue at fancy
restaurants a few years ago,
and I think we can all agree
we are happy that fad is
over.
Unless you get them
when they fi rst pop up in
the spring, dandelion leaves
are fairly bitter. They’re not
unpleasant, exactly, but nei-
ther are they particularly
pleasant. Like a less tasty
version of arugula, they are
best used sparingly, as an
astringent counterpoint to
somewhat sweeter lettuces.
I served mine with a
light vinaigrette, and I used
wild strawberries as a visu-
ally appealing garnish.
Wild strawberries also grow
with abandon in poorly
tended yards, like mine,
and are easily foraged.
They taste essentially like
nothing, but it’s the taste
of nothing with the faintest
hint of strawberry.
Grape leaves are also
easily accessible, if you
know where to fi nd them.
You can simply pick them
off a grapevine if you have
one, or your neighbor does.
Our community garden
has grapevines, but I forgot
about them, and I knew
I could steal a few from
a neighborhood restau-
rant with the vines. But I
decided to do the honorable
thing and buy them in a jar.
I’m sure there are other
things you can do with
grape leaves, but why
bother when you can make
dolmades?
Dolmades are the pop-
ular Greek, Turkish and
Cypriot dish of grape leaves
stuff ed with rice and other
ingredients. Lamb is a pop-
ular choice, but I followed
tradition and kept mine veg-
etarian. Along with the rice,
I stuff ed them with onions,
pine nuts, tomatoes and
currants.
The key is to simmer
them in water with plenty of
lemon juice in it. The lemon
juice really brings this treat
to life.
I had also thought about
cooking some pokeweed,
which is almost as ubiq-
uitous as dandelions, and
even went so far as to pick
some leaves. But even
though pokeweed is fairly
commonly eaten, unless it
is prepared correctly it is
also toxic.
It is poisonous when
eaten raw, despite the mis-
leading name poke salad.
To make sure you are safe,
you have to boil it in three
changes of water for a half
hour or so.
I decided I didn’t want
to bother boiling anything
for a half hour in the hopes
M ICHAEL
of having it not kill me.
So I went to the grocery
store instead and picked up
something nice for dinner.
GRILLED
SUNFLOWER
HEADS
Yield: Depends on size of sun-
fl ower
1 sunfl ower head, see note
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Optional toppings such as
butter, garlic butter, garlic
salt, paprika, chopped fresh
herbs, sundried tomatoes,
vinaigrette or spices.
Note: Pick a sunfl ower head in
late summer, when the fl ower
just starts to droop. There
should be seeds under the
yellow fuzzy fl ower part, but
the shells should still be soft.
1. Prepare a medium-hot grill.
2. Remove the sunfl ower’s
petals, if any, and use your fi ngers
to brush off the yellow fuzzy
fl ower part. Rinse thoroughly.
Brush with plenty of olive oil or
fl avored olive oil and season with
salt and pepper. Add dry optional
toppings, if you want: garlic salt,
paprika or spices.
3. Place the sunfl ower head
face-down on the grill. Cover and
cook 5 minutes.
4. If desired, add optional
wet or fresh toppings: butter,
vinaigrette, fresh herbs. Eat as you
would a corn on the cob; forks are
also suitable.
Ingredients are too variable for
nutritional analysis.
— Recipe by Daniel Neman
TOMATO,
CUCUMBER
AND
PURSLANE
SALAD
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Tomato, Cucumber and Purslane Salad, sitting in a bed of white purslane fl owers.
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, minced (1/2 cup)
3 or 4 scallions, white and
green parts, minced
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup long-grain rice
2 medium tomatoes, peeled
seeded and chopped,
or 2 canned tomatoes,
drained and chopped
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice,
or more to taste
About 25 grape leaves, see note
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Note: If the grape leaves are
fresh (as opposed to canned
or jarred), rinse them and
place them in a colander.
Bring a tea kettle of water to
boil and pour over the grape
leaves. They should be soft
enough to roll. If not, repeat
with more boiling water.
Yield: 2 to 3 servings
1 large cucumber, peeled,
seeded and chopped
1 bunch purslane, thick
stems removed, leaves
chopped, about ½ cup
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded
and minced
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt
Combine all ingredients in a
serving bowl. Salt to taste.
Per serving (based on 2): 40
calories; 1 g fat; no saturated fat;
no cholesterol; 2 g protein; 10 g
carbohydrate; 5 g sugar; 2 g fi ber;
89 mg sodium; 39 mg calcium
— Recipe by Elise Bauer in
simplyrecipes.com
SALAD WITH
DANDELION
LEAVES
Yield: 4 servings
5 large leaves of romaine
lettuce, rinsed and dried
5 leaves of leaf lettuce (red or
green), rinsed and dried
20 fresh dandelion leaves,
preferably in the spring
12 cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup sweet onion, diced
1/3 cup toasted walnuts
4 large strawberries,
rinsed and sliced
6 tablespoons your
favorite vinaigrette
Mix together all ingredients.
Per serving: 300 calories; 26 g
fat; 4 g saturated fat; no choles-
terol; 5 g protein; 19 g carbohy-
drate; 8 g sugar; 5 g fi ber; 303 mg
sodium; 87 mg calcium
— Recipe by Daniel Neman
1. Put the currants in a small
bowl and cover with hot water to
soften while you prepare the rest
of the stuffi ng.
2. Warm the olive oil in a
saucepan over medium-low heat
and gently sauté the onion and
scallions for 15 minutes or until
they are thoroughly softened
but not browned. Add the pine
nuts and continue cooking a few
minutes longer, until golden.
3. Add the rice and stir to coat
thoroughly with the oil. Add
the tomatoes, salt and pepper,
and pour in the hot water. Mix
well, cover and cook over gentle
heat until all the liquid has been
absorbed, about 10 minutes. The
rice will start to soften but will not
be cooked. Remove from the heat,
stir in the allspice and drained
currants, and set aside, covered,
for 10 minutes.
4. Rinse the grape leaves. Place
one leaf with the smooth side
down on a counter. Remove the
stem, if attached. Place a spoonful
of stuffi ng at the base of the leaf,
where the stem was attached,
about ½ inch from the edge. Fold
the bottom edge up around the
stuffi ng, then fold in each side,
right and left. Carefully roll the
leaf, making a compact bundle,
toward the point.
5. Place the stuff ed grape
leaves in the bottom of a heavy
kettle or large saucepan; they
should fi t comfortably without
being wedged in tightly, so they
can expand as the rice in the stuff -
ing cooks. You can make layers in
the kettle or pan, but put them in
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Grilled sunfl ower heads.
the opposite direction of the layer
below: If the bottom layer faces
left to right, make the upper layer
front to back.
6. Add lemon juice and water
just to cover the grape leaves.
Set a plate just smaller than the
pan upside-down on top of the
grape leaves, cover the kettle or
pan, and simmer gently for about
25 to 30 minutes or until the rice
and grape leaves are thoroughly
cooked. Serve with lemon wedges
and a drizzle of olive oil.
Per serving: 264 calories; 16 g
fat; 2 g saturated fat; no choles-
terol; 4 g protein; 30 g carbohy-
drate; 6 g sugar; 4 g fi ber; 600 mg
sodium; 91 mg calcium
— Recipe from “The New
Mediterranean Diet Cookbook” by
Nancy Harmon Jenkins
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STUFFED
GRAPE LEAVES
(DOLMADES)
Yield: 4 servings
1 tablespoon black currants
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