Weed Soup

I planted my garden about a month ago but most of my seeds didn't germinate. What did germinate was a lot of weeds. I started wondering if they were edible. I nonchalantly toss them to the chickens which attack them with gusto. I've written about Malva in my garden before and I know it is edible. And the other weed was one that I've seen at the local grocery stores that cater to the Hispanic population. I finally figured out it is purslane. I had a hard time finding photos of the variety of purslane that is in my garden so I decided to take a bunch in all stages of growth and put them onto my Flickr account.

And then tonight, I made Weed Soup. I looked at a few recipes today that call for purslane, but here's what I came up with on my own. I am very pleased with this combination of ingredients, although the green chili will make the soup have "heat" to it.

Weed Soup

1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon butter
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup lentils
1 green chili pepper, diced
Hefty bunch of parslane, chopped

Saute the onion in butter until transparent. Pour in chicken broth, lentils, barley and green chili pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the chopped purslane and simmer for 10-15 minutes longer. Next time I'll chop the stems into shorter pieces. Also, I'll avoid using the stem closest to the root as some of the pieces of stem were a little tough, kind of like asparagus can be sometimes. I just chewed up the tougher pieces to get all the good out of them and then removed the fibrous pieces from my mouth. Into a napkin, of course.

Purslane is good for you, here's a quote: "It was one of the most important of the wild plant foods for the native peoples of the Southwest — Pueblo, Zuni, Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odom and others. The seed, ground and added to breads and stews, brought valuable protein to the diet. The leaves and stems are rich in nutrients. One cup of the leaves (100 grams) contains iron, vitamin A, calcium, vitamins C and E, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, manganese and silica."

According to this site purslane is packed with omega 3 fatty acids and one cup has only seven calories.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Until next time.