Purslane cucumber avocado yorgurt gazpacho

As mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have a semi-wild, semi-cultivated space in our front yard that is covered in edible plants, both planted and wild. 

One of these plants that basically edges the entire length of the space is a favorite of mine--purslane! 

Purslane is one of the most nutritious wild plants that one can forage. It's a succulent native to North Africa and the Mediterranean, but has become either naturalized or invasive (depending on whom you talk to) in the southern United States. 

Purslane forms dense mats, becoming a succulent groundcover

Purslane has one of the highest concentrations of magnesium you can find in a plant, higher than spinach. It also has high levels of various anti-oxidants, calcium, sodium and Omega 3 fatty acids. It's actually one of the only terrestrial plants that has Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) fatty acid, most commonly found from animal sources. Generally vegan supplements use algae to provide this nutrient. However, purslane doesn't have enough of it to support your body's need all alone. It's just a fun fact!

Purslane also has high concentrations of oxalic acid, and so it shouldn't be eaten by those with liver or kidney disorders. 

I have a post all about purslane, including how to identify it, click here.

Personal story time

One of our many thriving basil plants 

Last Friday I had to undergo a total thyroidectomy. I am in recovery and doing extremely well. For example, I was given 7 days of double-dose  painkillers (omg!) but only ever took one pill at a time, and then only for 2 days. 

I've had to sponge bath since Friday though, and I am desperately looking forward to my first shower since the surgery. By the time this posts I expect I will finally have had one, I can shower again on Wednesday. My hair is a greasy mess, I can't seem to get it clean with a sponge bath. 

Anyway, I was told that I would need at least a week of cold, soft foods only, so the weekend before last I took some time to prepared a bunch of cold soups I could put in the freezer, and this gazpacho was one of them. Because I was freezing it, I didn't actually add the yogurt when I made it originally. Instead I mixed it in after defrosting. For this reason, my yogurt measurements might be a bit off. 

While mixing the soup, I was originally going to add cilantro, but tasting it as I was making it, I knew that was the wrong choice. I wondered out to the herb garden and decided that the freshness and subtle sweetness of Italian basil was required. 

Fortunately, the basil has been growing like mad this year. We have 6 very large, very full plants, despite making pesto every other weekend. 

Purslane, cucumber, yogurt & avocado gazpacho recipe

Serves 6-7 as a side or starter. Recipe can be halved

• 4-5 cups of roughly chopped purslane, about 1 large colander full
• 3 English cucumbers or 8 Persian cucumbers, roughly chopped
• 4 large avocados, just ripe or slightly underripe, skinned, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 1 medium lemon
• 8 medium fresh basil leaves
• 2 cups of water or unseasoned vegetable stock
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 5 cups of yogurt

Horseweed, lavender and parmesan savory shortbread

Over the past few years, my husband and I have been trying to fill in some holes in the landscaping of our front yard. During the bad winters of 21 and 22 several very, very, very large bushes died, leaving a bare area of more than 20 feed wide and about 12 feet deep in front of the dining room window. 

We didn't want to refill the area with more non-native, water guzzling landscaping bushes, and have instead been trying to find shrubs and perennial plants that fit our very restrictive list:

• 

  Early flowerbud on my surviving lavender

  Native or easy to naturalize, but without the risk of becoming invasive
• Low water or true xeriscape
• Good for pollinators
• Edible or medicinal (or both!)
• Grows densely enough that I don't have to weed

So far we have a large mat of native-to-the-southwest blanket flower (Gaillardia) surrounding the ginkgo tree (which fortunately survived), an English lavender shrub that was supposed to be 6 plants but only one survived, a seedling Feijoa (Acca sellowiana) which I believed had died twice but came back stronger each time, and a native-hybrid "hot lips" sagebush (salvia microphylla) which seems to be trying so hard to die and I just won't let it. There were supposed to be 3 different sages with 3 different flavor profiles, but this is the only one which has (so far) survived. 

Given all the plant deaths, what has survived covers barely 1/10th of the available space. But on the plus side, the weeds that have popped up in the remaining area are all edible. The crown jewel of wild plants in the space must be the very large black nightshade, Solanum nigrum, which produces an insane amount of fruit, but must be cut back repeatedly or it will fully engulf the salvia. Also popping up are wild lettuce, Asiatic dayflower, purslane, and some other nightshades I can't quite identify yet, but I think might be groundcherries (Physalis).

An ancient understanding of herbs

There is a historical tradition in many parts of Italy, that when it comes to curing meats, like capicola, you want to season the meat using the same herbs plants that the pig itself has been eating. So while a generic capicola curing packet might contain thyme, juniper and fennel, the small, local batches that have been done the same way for centuries will use ONLY fennel from the region, only thyme from the hillsides where the animals roam, and only the local juniper berries that fall and are gobbled up by the pigs. 

Horseweed & lavender,
I actually added a bit more than this

The thought behind this is that when things grow together it is both flavorful and healthful to consume them together. 

Why do I bring this up?

Well, this is what inspired me to make this recipe. You see, I saw the horseweed growing so abundantly in and around the lavender that I couldn't help but wonder if the two would taste good together. And the combination is WONDERFUL!

Savory shortbread recipes have been trending for a while. Or maybe they are past trending, I tend to only become aware of trends by the time they have largely ceased to be trends any longer. But regardless, they often contain thyme and rosemary. I do like thyme in small amounts, but I really don't care for rosemary. So I was excited to try the idea of the recipe with other herbs I enjoy. 

Savory horseweed, lavender and parmesan shortbread recipe

Makes 25-30 shortbreads, depending on size. Can be doubled or tripled.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 8 tbs / 4 oz / 1 stick of butter (I used grass-fed European butter)
• 4 oz parmesan cheese, grated*
• 1/2 cup finely chopped, freshly picked horseweed and lavender, about 3/4 cup un-chopped
• 2 medium navel oranges, juice and zest
• Pinch of kosher salt (omit if using salted butter)

*Don't buy pre-grated cheese here, it's worth it to grate your own--and very easy to do in a food processor. Pre-grated parmesan has cellulous added to keep it from sticking together, and that will really mess with the subtle flavors here. 

Images a bit out of order, from left to right: 
The butter softened and whipped, the finely chopped herbs, and the zested orange. 
All of this was done in the food processor.

Healthy green marinara with sow thistle

Those of you who follow me on Instagram might remember seeing the image I shared of my green marinara sauce last March, when I promised a recipe to follow on my blog soon. 

And then I did not do that. 

But better late than never, as they say. A warmer than usual February has triggered the earliest spring plants to sprout, including one of my annual favorites, prickly sow thistle. 

Early spring prickly sow thistle, picked last Friday

That vivid green color is all natural

I really, really love this recipe. Unlike a pesto, this is completely vegan (unless you add cheese on top). It's also low in fat, since oil isn't a key ingredient. And each serving is also a full serving of leafy vegetables! That last point is especially important since sow thistle is incredibly nutritious, rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium and a number of important vitamins. 

It's really surprising how creamy this sauce is, considering that it has no cream, milk, coconut milk or cheese. 

Foraging prickly sow thistle: pictures, flowers, leaves & identification for Sonchus asper

Latin Name: Sonchus asper
Common Names: Prickly sow thistle, spiny sow thistle, sharp sow thistle, rough milk thistle
Season: Early spring
Edible: Yes 
Flavor: Good
Medicinal and nutritional value: Vitamin rich, antioxidant strong, liver and kidney purifying 
Identification difficulty: Beginner

The leaves of this plant are at a good stage for harvest

Despite the texture, prickly sow thistle is one of the edible wild plants I look forward to the most every spring. 

If you can work around the prickles, which is easy enough to do when planning dishes that need to be pureed (like sauces and soups), you are rewarded with a wonderfully rich leafy green. The flavor is generally very mild with only a slight bitterness, comparable to swiss chard or belgian endive, to add complexity. Most everyone who eats leafy greens will enjoy properly prepared prickly sow thistle. 

Perhaps even better, prickly sow thistle is extremely common 

Nutritional & medicinal benefits

The sow thistle family (Sonchus) is one of the ones where a significant amount of research has been done into nutrition and potential medicinal benefits. Sow thistles have long been accepted as health foods, associated with liver and kidney purification. 

Recent studies have shown that the sow thistles, particularly the prickly sow thistle, are antioxidant powerhouses. Antioxidants have been shown to reduce the effects of aging, both on the body and mind. They also lower your cancer risk. 

While antioxidant extractions are available in pills, syrups, etc., studies show that the best way to gain the positive effects of antioxidants might simply be to incorporate a large number of antioxidant-rich foods into your diet. 

All three sow thistles were found to be rich dietary fiber and in vitamin E, though smooth sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis) had the highest concentrations. Like most leafy greens, sow thistles have a lot of valuable minerals, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, sodium and selenium. Smooth sow thistle is the best of the 3 for potassium, common sow thistle has the highest concentration of iron and prickly sow thistle offers the most calcium. 

As an added bonus, sow thistles DO NOT have large amounts of oxalic acid, even though they exhibit red coloration. They contain less than 10% of the oxalic acid found in spinach or swiss chard, for example, and less than 5% of the oxalic acid in purslane. 

To learn more about the antioxidant properties of prickly sow thistle, check out this article from the National Library of Medicine. 

To learn more about the nutritional qualities of the sow thistle genus, please read this article from the National Library of Medicine. 

History as a food crop

There are three, common, wide-spread sow thistles: Common sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), prickly sow thistle (Sonchus asper) and smooth sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis). They are native to Europe, particularly the Mediterranean regions. They are now found throughout temperate North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, and much of Asia and Africa. 

A good-sized haul of prickly sow thistle leaves,
ready to cook and eat

Our earliest record of sow thistles as a food comes from the ancient Greeks, who considered it to be strengthening, and used the non-prickly varieties in salads, especially during winter time when greens were scarce.

Europeans in the middle ages valued the sow thistles for animal feed. The name "sow thistle" comes from farmers feeding the plant to sows with piglets; it was believed that this plant increased lactation.

As traditional agriculture became the standard in Europe and European colonies, like the U.S., sow thistles came to be regarded as common weeds, and a great deal is spent to eradicate them. 

But that is not always the case in areas where sow thistles have spread. 

As European agricultural practices spread with colonization, many native species of plants, which were essential food sources for the native peoples, were wiped out. Eurasian plant species had evolved a centuries-long history of competition, due to exposure to other plant species spread via trade routes. As a general rule, these plants could out-compete native species, which is why dandelions, plantains, sow thistles and others are considered common weeds today. 

But many native peoples have embraced the "weeds" traditional agriculture rejects, and have used them to supplement or replace native plants that have been decimated. Sow thistles in particular are consumed by the Māori of New Zealand and the by the native peoples of the rural Brazilian rainforest regions.

In addition to the three most wide-spread sow thistles there are many regional species, especially in Africa and some hype-local species in places like the Canary Islands, some of which are used for food. 

What's this yellow mushroom growing in my houseplant or garden

Nothing edible to share today, but I wanted to make a post about a mushroom that gets asked about all the time on Reddit and Instagram.  

The question "What is this yellow mushroom growing in my house plant / planter / garden?" is one I see every day, and today I'm here to answer it.

95% of the time you are looking at Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, sometimes called the yellow parasol mushroom, the painted dapperling, or the flowerpot parasol. Yes, it's so common in flower pots that it actually has that in the common name. The other 5% of the time you might be looking at the closely related Leucocoprinus straminellus, which is generally a paler shade of yellow, or Leucocoprinus flavescensm which generally has a brown area in the center of the cap.

Both L. birnbaumii and straminellus are tropical or subtropical mushrooms, so finding them in nature in the continental US, Canada or northern Mexico is extremely rare, but extremely common in potting and gardening soil. This is most likely due to the common usage of tropical materials, like orchid bark, in purchased soils. These organic materials may be contaminated with L. birnbaumii spores which then grow mushrooms when conditions are warm enough.

For most North Americans this means late spring, summer or early fall, but if you have a greenhouse, the yellow parasol might pop up anytime. 

Bell shaped when young

Yellow parasol mushroom description 

A bright, dainty mushroom that's yellow all over, cap, stalk and gills. L. birnbaumii is bright yellow and L. straminellus is pale or whitish yellow.

The cap shape starts out as a bell or cone or occasionally a marshmallow shape, then expands to an umbrella, and then the classic, nearly flat, parasol shape. When in the umbrella stage, the edges of the cap generally have fine striations (lines) and the cap will have small fibrous or warty raised areas all over, and the middle area will usually be raised -- this is called an umbo. At maturity, the cap will be anywhere from 1.5" to 3.5" in diameter. 

The stems are narrow near the cap and thicker at the base, even somewhat bulbous as they enter the soil. The stems will usually feature a ring, sometimes a double ring. The mushroom should be 2" to 3.5" high at maturity, but might be as tall as 4.5" in rarer cases. 

Is the yellow parasol mushroom poisonous or edible?

Reports are conflicting on whether L. birnbaumii is toxic, but it definitely should NOT be eaten. Many  Leucocoprinus species are severe sickeners, and symptoms can be dangerous.