Instead of getting rid of all the weeds on your garden or lawn, you should identify those common edible weeds and turn them to homegrown meals. Apparently, for many gardeners, any crop that grows unintentionally in their farms are weeds even when they are edible. Among the garden weeds are those that are not only edible but also nutritious and we can add them to our meals.
It is not common to find edible weeds in the grocery shops but once in a while they are there, but frequent in our gardens and we take no serious business about them. Although different kinds of weeds might be available depending on weather conditions of a place, here are some of the common edible weeds you should embrace.
Dandelion
Dandelions have bad reputation amongst those who want clean and uniform gardens like a golf course. They grow anyhow and unapologetically. The best part about dandelion is that every part of it is edible from blossoms to the roots. Either raw or cooked. You can harvest dandelion leaves at any point of their growing. The youngest leaves are the best for vegetables while the oldest are not left, they can be used as addition to green salads. If you dont like raw dandelion, you can stir-fry or cooked for soup to make them less bitter. Its flowers are sweet and crunchy and can be eaten raw, while you can roast the roots and dry to make a substitute to coffee or any other recipe that require root vegetables.
Purslane
Purslane loves to grow on moist beds, lawns and shaddy places. It likes lying on the grown where they may not be noticed. It has plenty of nutrion especially omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants. They are good for salads, soup or stew. They can be consumed raw or cooked. When take raw, they add peppery flavor to any dish.
Clover
Clover is important food for honeybees and also bumblebees. They are also important part of human meals. Either through chopped salads or sauteed to from green accent in dishes. Its flowers are useful if you eat them raw or cooked or even dried for tea.
Lamb’s Quarters
You can eat the young shoots and leaves of Lamb’s Quaters raw or in vegetables. It can as well be sauteed or steamed and used anywhere spinach is called for. You can also harvest the seeds and eat them although it takes a lot of patience before you gather enough for a main dish.
Plantain
It is a common lawn weed which has great medicinal values typically soothing burns, stings, wounds or rashes. Plantain is a great edible green for table. The young leaves can be eaten raw, sauteed, steamed or boiled. Older leaves are tough but they can be cooked. Its seeds can be ground into flour which and they are rich in fiber supplement & natural laxative.
Wild Amaranth
Wild amaranth aka pigweed is a leafy vegetative weed that can be a good addition to our dishes. The leaves are softier and tastierlike spinach.
There are more edible weeds not mentioned here but take a look at the following gallery and note some that can benefit your table. Disclaimer – not all edible weeds are suitable for any one, do a personal research about edible weed before putting onto your table.
Check my post on beetroot & frost-tolerant plants.
