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Backyard harvested salad of Edible weeds - Chickweed , Dandelion , Water hyssop , Wild rocket , Purslane , Scurvy weed & Lambs quarter with Pink grapefruit , Parmesan , wild rocket flowers and Lime & palm sugar vinaigrette .
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The second edition to the backyard salad series and this time although still the majority of the dish being harvested from the backyard, the emphasis is on those plants most people dread in their garden and are unaware there's a meal right under foot. Many people around the world are edible weed forages and sometimes travel to collect their prized eating weeds. I'm unfortunate enough that these edible plants are some of the best growing plants in my yard only they're not in rows. With the exception of the Wild rocket and the purslane which are in rows and have been cultivated by me. In fact there are ten edible weeds that grow commonly in our yard with the inclusion of clover, salsify and nasturtium. Although these plants are domestically known as weeds and have no commercial value, some of the leaves used in this salad have more nutritional value than your supermarket salad leaf. For example Dandelion native to Europe and now a widespread common weed throughout the world contains the highest content of vitamin A of all greens and very high potassium levels, stimulates bile flow and digestive enzymes is considered a spring clean for your liver. Scurvy weed was first eaten by white settlers in the country to protect themselves from scurvy and Wild rocket a member of the mustard family, the group of plants renown for their cancer fighting properties. This is just scratching into the surface of whats in this salad dish from a nutritional aspect. As most of these weeds taste either bland or bitter I've added the accompaniments of parmesan cheese and pink grapefruit pieces with a lime and palm sugar vinaigrette and seasoned with black cypress salt.
From left to right and top to bottom -
Dandelion, Lambs quarter, Purslane, Wild rocket, Scurvy weed and water hyssop.
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