Seventeen Ways to Use Wild Greens

2018 Holiday Sale on herbal courses!

When I first took interest in foraging, I would just sit and nibble little bits of dandelion leaves or wood sorrel in the yard. I didn’t really know where to go from there. How to cook wild greens or pair flavors with other ingredients still remained mysteries to me. But I didn’t want to merely remain a rabbit forever.

While I am certainly no expert in this field, I have begun collecting and trying different recipes for wild greens (among other foraged goods). Without further ado, I present to you:

Here are 17 ways to use the weeds in your yard!


Seventeen ways to use wild greens!

 

  1. Add them to soup as a green, or turn them into the main ingredient for soups. French-style sorrel soup is a popular forager’s option (from Hank Shaw), and Susan of Learning and Yearning suggested making wild greens the star of your favorite cream soup recipe (instead of boring old broccoli. 🙂 ).
  2. Make them a pizza topping. Why not?
  3. Add them to your egg dishes.
  4. Make them the green part in your green smoothies.
  5. Add them to salad, or make them the main ingredient in a salad. (Try this milkweed and radish salad from One Acre Farm for starters.)
  6. Put them on a sandwich (like my garden sausage sandwich), wrap, or burger.
  7. Roast them. (Try roasted wild mustard buds from Little Fall Creek!)
  8. Make them into pesto. I’ve heard of both dandelion pesto (Learning and Yearning) and nettle leaf pesto (my sister-in-law’s sister’s idea).
  9. Pickle them, like these pickled wild onions in honey-rosemary brine featured on The 104 Homestead. (Doesn’t that sound exotic?)
  10. Saute them as a side dish- this pairing of greens, salmon, and sweet potato sounds delicious and different (Letters from Sunnybrook), or perhaps this mix of wild mustard greens, dock, and onions? (Little Fall Creek.)
  11. Try adding them to polenta. (Little Fall Creek.)
  12. Turn them into sauces and seasonings, such as sorrel sauce from Mother Earth News. (My brother-in-law also enjoys using sorrel as a garnish/edible bed for fish, in lieu of lemons!)
  13. Use them as a dolma wrapping- Hank Shaw uses mallow leaves for this, and Botanical Arts Press has a bunch of ideas for stuffing wild grape leaves.
  14. Substitute them for spinach, like in this recipe from Herbal Academy of New England.
  15. Make them into vinegar, dressings, and marinades. (Herbal Academy.)
  16. Drink them like a coffee or as a tea. (Also from Herbal Academy.) We love drying plantain and stinging nettle for tea leaves alongside our more common herbal teas. Seriously.
  17. Use them for skin care remedies. (Have I mentioned how much I’ve been digging Herbal Academy?)

Always remember to check and double check your wild plant identification before you eat it. This blog post isn’t meant to be a complete field guide to identification. Once you know what you’re looking at, gathering from your yard isn’t so scary- but make sure you do your research first just to be safe. 🙂

I hope this list has inspired you to try something new. We just gave the dandelion pesto a whirl last week! Go get picking and cooking, and let me know what you come up with. 🙂

This post was linked up at The Homestead Blog Hop.

How to get started using wild greens in your kitchen and your home.

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8 thoughts on “Seventeen Ways to Use Wild Greens

  1. Amanda

    Great list! I keep telling myself I’ll forage for more, but I never seem to get around to it. One of these days… Thanks for sharing on the Homestead Blog Hop!

    Reply
    1. Abi Post author

      Thanks for stopping by Amanda! I know, even with so many good options, sometimes I still feel that I only make use of a small portion of our yard’s bounty.

      Reply
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