In these strangest of days, you can find solace and sustenance right in your own yard. Here’s how to identify many edible weeds that live all around us.
veggies
Wild Rice Salad with Mushrooms
Wild rice, wild mushrooms, caramelized onions. What’s not to love? This is a perfect side dish for wild game like venison or duck or pheasant.
Italian Ricotta Spinach Dumplings
Called strangolapreti — “priest stranglers” — in Italian, these dumplings made with breadcrumbs, cheese and a green thing (spinach, amaranth, chard, etc) are easy to make and are a great vegetarian main course or side dish for something meatier.
Pickled Ramps
Pickling ramp bulbs — or the bulbs of any large wild onion — is a great way to preserve the harvest. These are fantastic served with cured meats and cheeses, or chopped into a relish or just eaten as a snack.
Arugula Pesto with Pasta
When life gives you arugula — a wild version grows like a weed in my yard — you make arugula pesto. A peppery, bracing pesto that matches really well with homemade pasta.
Tabasco Style Fermented Hot Sauce
A few years ago I traveled to Louisiana and learned from the McIlhenny family themselves how to make Tabasco Sauce. Now, two years later, I can finally tell you how to make it. It’s easy, but like fine wine, it takes time.
Root Vegetable Ragu with Polenta
Yes, it’s true. This is a vegetarian recipe… although it’d be good with some bacon. I have a fondness for unusual vegetables, and odd roots most of all. Many of my favorite oddities are in this simple ragout: Hamburg parsley, crosnes, salsify and hopniss.
Cardoon Risotto
Cardoons are an old relative of the artichoke, tasting like a mash-up of artichoke hearts, celery and endive. They can be tricky to work with, so when I found a recipe for cardoon risotto I had to try it.