“People are quite rude about weeds.”
Nikki Brighton, writer, forager, locavore and enthusiast of this abundant greenery frequently met with a “pull it out, pull it out” mentality, says with a hint of hurt in her voice.
The author of Wild about Weeds: An Introduction to Uncultivated Food, Edible Weeds: Identify Common Uncultivated Food and Mnandi: A Taste of Mphophomeni, and creator of the Plant Abundance blog, is dispelling misconceptions about weeds one recipe at a time.
Palatable these plants certainly are: why, Brighton just had a long-table lunch with stinging nettle on the menu!
“It’s fantastic!” the Midlands denizen and custodian of an uncultivated, pollinator-friendly garden, enthuses. “It’s a very cleansing green and simply too marvellous!”
“I make pesto with nettles and walnuts. Nettles taste a bit like walnuts anyway, so this is a great combo with peppery olive oil. I made nettle cordial for the first time last summer and it is a winner! Such an unusual flavour and beautiful colour. I used four cups of nettle leaves, 500g sugar, 500ml water and juice of half a lemon. Heat, but do not boil. Cool, then leave in the container, stirring daily. After a week, strain and bottle the liquid. I keep it in the fridge, but that may not be necessary.”
Recipe idea: Nettle soup
Chop and fry one potato, one carrot, ½ onion, salt and pepper. Pick leaves from stems, add to the other ingredients, stir for a minute to wilt, then add stock or water. Blitz to a smooth texture, serve with a dollop of cream.
Lamb’s quarters is another favourite ingredient: “I have heard that this drought and pest-resistant plant sells for $8 a bunch in American markets! It is rampant here and grows to shoulder height in my gardens.
“This leaf is nutrient dense and contains vitamin B, lots of vitamin A and plenty of protein. Boiled young flowers taste like a combination of broccoli and asparagus. I love to make a nest of them with an egg in the middle for breakfast. Great with sugar beans too. The seeds are also rich in protein and can be ground into flour to make bread or porridge or sprouted for salads. I just toss them into soups. The leaves and seeds can be dried for later use. Try crushing the crisp stems into biscuits.”
Recipe idea: Purslane stir-fry
Stir-fry leaves with chilli, tomato, onion and garlic. Serve with polenta, pasta or a poached egg.
From flower to root, dandelion is exceptional food: “They’re magical, I make wishes with them. For me, they are the poster child of edible weeds.”
Brighton will sommer pluck the bewitching weed/foodstuff from her (un)cultivated lawn. “They’re there to seal the space where humans have disrupted the earth,” she adds of their ecological value in an ever-increasing selfishly anthropocentric world.
City slickers, don’t despair: if it’s an edible weed within an urban space you seek, purslane on hot, dry edges of car parks will provide you with what you need!
This “superfood lurking on the sidewalk” contains Omega 3, iron, magnesium, calcium, vitamins C, A and B-complex, as well as potassium, manganese, carotenoids and antioxidants. A trip to Dis-Chem saved, one purslane dish at a time.
Recipe idea: Purslane gazpacho
Eat purslane with cucumber, garlic and yoghurt, or blitz with fresh tomato, garlic and cucumber for an interesting twist on gazpacho.
Urban weed seekers: look around in the cracks of the pavement, little scraps of land at the back of a car park, behind tennis courts, and in dog parks for an edible weed with all the nutrients you need.
Quick P(ee)SA: “You don’t really want to eat too much where there’s lots of human urination,” Brighton cautions.
Fleabane (“it’s peppery and really spicy, so use it with avocado”), nettles (“they’re wonderful with potatoes”), and dandelions (“make a mixed salad with lots of other leaves like clover and lots of blossoms”) are menu musts for the metropolitans in our midst.
Other than her garden, Brighton, as a locavore — a person whose diet consists only or mainly from local-is-lekker grown and produced food — receives her necessary sustenance from people she knows: “It’s marvellous! It brings so much joy!” she says of the sense of community it brings. “I’m connected to the farmers because that’s where I source my eggs; I know who cultivates the carrots, leeks and gruber potatoes I eat; I know the name of the cow whose milk is ethically used to make handmade cheese and handmade ice cream.”
Brighton further describes a locavore as “someone who really pays attention to what they eat” with seasons to look forward to: “I’m waiting for potato season; when it comes, I have a whole happy potato dance I do! I’m known for my wild dance,” she laughs.
Brighton earnestly opines that we’ve lost the plot with food: “Supermarkets are excellent at disconnecting, it manipulates us. Being a locavore is exceptionally important.”
Adding micronutrients and extra nutrition borne from uncultivated plants is a cheap way of living, she adds, expressing shock at how much we spend on fruit and vegetables in grocery stores.
“There are things growing around you: walk past a granadilla tree, pick a fruit, and make memories of gathering food in our vicinity.
“Food is a good way to build community; everyone has to eat, and eating or cooking together is something we no longer do.”
Brighton remedies this remiss by presenting uncultivated workshops using the “simplest things: flavoured salt, pesto, cordial. Everyone loves standing around the table, chopping and pounding, eating together. You can add to their lives or minds with food by feeding people good food. Carnivores have even realised ‘I could be a vegetarian!’”.
She also encourages adding imaginative flair to preparing fowl: “Putting chicken in a pot and boiling it is the easiest thing to do and it’s so delicious. Don’t just add a pumpkin!”
Stir-fry is an easy introduction to eating — and enjoying — uncultivated food!
“Start with chillies, tomato, onion and different weeds, and open a can of chickpeas,” is the first step in your weed eating 101.
“Use everything from nettles to dandelions to clover to fleabane. There’s a whole mixture once you’ve learnt what you can eat from out of your garden.”
If you’re craving a stew with additional, garden-borne nutrients, start adding greens to it, Brighton recommends. “Eat the tops of beetroots and carrots and pumpkin leaves. We waste so much uncultivated food.”
Fig leaves, too, are edible, Brighton recently discovered.
Once you’ve munched your way through every morsel of au naturel stew, treat yourself to a dollop of fig leave syrup à la Brighton’s recipe book:
Fig Leaf Syrup
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of water
- 10 fig leaves
Dissolve the sugar in the water as it gently heats. Once simmering, add the leaves for a minute, then turn off the heat and allow to infuse overnight. Remove the leaves and store the syrup in a bottle.
Back to the wild, wild weeds which can feed: how often does she get asked “But what if I die?!”
“Ooooooooooooh! Weekly!” Brighton laughs. “People ask me that all the time. No-one at my workshops has ever died yet, and it’s unlikely you’ll really poison yourself. If you eat something your system disagrees with, you’ll feel queasy, have an upset tummy or get a headache. You’re never going to eat enough of something you don’t like in one fell swoop.”
And if your body truly says “nay”, a good ol’ tactical chunder and (not so) solid bout of diarrhoea will have it saying “Yea!”
System? Fixed.
Found weeds you schmaak? Tick.
The next step? Living abundantly.
“We’ve reduced our lives to pretty mundane existences,” Brighton shares. “Once it starts filtering, I can’t help seeing abundance in everything.”
Listen to the locavore: #NoFilter, no more.
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