WEEDED THE GARDEN yesterday. Then cooked up the weeds for lunch.
If you’re hesitant to include backyard weeds in your menu, try this simple recipe. Who doesn’t love a big bowl of stir-fried noodles with bright toppings? Wild greens add a distinctive and healthy bite to a dish already brimming with flavors. For the dish pictured, I used dandelion greens and watercress, with additional toppings of a soft-boiled egg and roasted shortrib.
You can vary the flavors in any number of ways if your cupboard is well stocked with a variety of chili pastes, bean pastes, Sichuan peppercorns, black vinegar, rice vinegar, aji-mirin, fish sauce, Sriracha sauce, miso, light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, pickled chiles, sambal olek, and so on. Below is the simplest form: just a little soy and aji-mirin (sweet rice wine).
1 package fresh udon
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced (reserve sliced tops for garnish)
1 tbsp garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ginger, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced julienne
2 cups wild greens, torn (or bok choy, cabbage, etc.)
aji-mirin
soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
1. Boil udon according to directions. Drain, rinse, pat dry, and set aside.
2. In a wok or large pan, sauté green onions, garlic, and ginger for a minute in peanut oil over medium heat. Add carrot and cook together another minute. Add greens and stir-fry until wilted, 30 seconds or so.
3. Stir in cooked noodles, add a splash of aji-mirin (less than a quarter cup) and a splash of soy sauce, to taste. Mix well, add a little sesame oil, and serve. Top with a garnish of sliced green onions, cilantro, crispy fried shallots, a fried egg, or a five-spiced short rib—or all of the above.
Do you find that people have very different perceptions of the bitterness of dandelion greens? I rather like them but my wife can’t hack what she describes as extreme bitterness?
Also, any experience with drying the leaves and then crumbling them on salads, omelets, etc? Does drying reduce their nutritional value?
Anonymous – I’d suggest that Americans in general have difficulty with foods on the bitter end of the spectrum. We’ve been conditioned by fast food and the proliferation of corn (i.e., high fructose corn syrup) so we yearn for sweet. Farmed dandelions were once a common food in the U.S. and are still widely eaten in Europe and elsewhere. You can limit the bitterness by picking leaves before the plant buds. As for drying and nutritional value, I’m not sure. I dry stinging nettles but not dandies.