Turns out, it’s a little of both.
I recently spent a couple hours weeding a bed of peppers at the community garden, and most of it was this rather pretty weed called purslane. One of the garden organizers mentioned that it’s edible, so I grabbed a bunch and took it home to try it out.
I washed it, and then I washed it again, and again and again. Man, that stuff was dirty. The goal of the whole weeding thing is to get as much of the root as possible, but those roots sure do like to hang on to dirt.
Once it was clean, I gave it a taste. Raw, it tastes a lot like a pea shoot, but not quite as sweet. I decided to try cooking it and found a recipe for Mexican Purslane Stuffing that looked promising. I steamed the purslane as directed, but then I started making a lot of changes to the recipe. So many that I really can’t give an opinion of the recipe at all. Instead of tomato, I used some salsa. Instead of soy sauce, I used some enchilada sauce from Trader Joe’s. The jalapeno I left out all together, but I added some mushrooms and zucchini.
So I can honestly say it’s no fault of the recipe and all of my own that it turned out to be not very good at all. The egg that’s added at the last minute didn’t set quite right, and the flavor just seemed off. But the purslane itself was fine, and I’ll use it again if I get the chance – maybe with these Purslane Cucumber Salad or Purslane Gazpacho recipes.
And instead of “weeding,” I’ll be “harvesting the purslane.”
7 Comments
June 26, 2008 at 6:18 pm
What climate is purslane suitable for? I’m in the Northeast and am interested in giving this plant a try.
August 16, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I live in northeast Michigan, above the 45th parallel on the shore of Lake Huron. Our winters go from -20 to -40 (not all the time of course) but purslane grows well here in the yard. It is a creeping spreading plant, so I would plant it about a foot apart. If you follow wild-harvesting rules and take half and leave half, you will have plenty every year. It is worthwhile to grow, it really is yummy raw and probably has more vitamins that way. If I can get it to the house without eating it out of hand, I use like lettuce. It’s good in salads or on sandwiches.
June 26, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I don’t know anything about planting it. It grows as a weed in most places, including my local community garden. Here’s an article on growing it as a houseplant:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art35658.asp
July 2, 2008 at 3:01 am
There must be something in the air (or water?)- your post is the 5th time I’ve read about purslane this week!
July 10, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Well, even if it didn’t taste good it still looks pretty in pictures!
August 4, 2008 at 2:01 am
Hello,
Wow, I’m so surprised to see that you tried to cook purslane! That’s amazing. Actually, my grandmother used to cook it all the time. You can check out my Spinach Pie video, but instead of using spinach, try using the purslane, it tastes great and the lemon flavor is a great compliment to the purslane. We also use it in our fattoush, although I did not reference it in my Fattoush video (I figured people would be disgusted that it’s a weed), you can add it to Fattoush as well. You can find these 2 recipes on my website at http://www.Dedemed.com Try it and let me know how it turns out.
Happy Cooking!
PS thank you for referencing my Grape Leaves recipe in your previous blog
August 11, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Thank you for your useful blog. I had been hoeing this out of my own small garden as well until I read your blog.