Sunday 10 April 2011

Wild salad leaves

Probably the most well known wild salad leaves are the dandelion which is still served in some restaurants in France. For the best wild salad leaves always use the young leaves as the plant tends to get older the leaves can turn quite bitter. You can always stand the salad leaves in water overnight which can reduce the bitterness. Use a light dressing of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Good base salad plants:
Pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris)
Lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis)
Celandine leaves (Ranunculus ficaria)
Hawthorn leaves (Crataegus monogyna)
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)

Sharp-tasting leaves:
Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)

Wild herbs good in salads:
Wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare)

2 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

Interesting, I'd never heard of using hawthorn leaves.

Martin said...

Thanks Gorges, yes you can eat the very young leaves. They were once called 'bread and cheese' many decades ago and have a pleasant nutty taste.