Make a refreshing wild purslane salad with cucumber, tomato, jalapeño pepper, lemon juice and salt.
For the past few years, my garden weeding routine has included pulling up a thick-stemmed groundcover plant with small yellow flowers to take up paths around garden beds.
It’s actually pretty, but in the gardening books it’s considered a weed.
Not only is it edible, something like crunchy, not-so-spicy watercress, but it’s packed with vitamins, minerals, and even omega 3’s.
In Mexico it is grown between rows of corn in corn fields. Called “verdolaga” in Spanish, it is used in many dishes, in salads or cooked with stewed pork.
So this year I decided to just let it grow and my garden stepping stones are now encased in a blanket of green purslane that loves space to spread so much that it has happily supplanted the crabgrass.
The following recipe for purslane salad comes from my Mexican friend Arturo Vargas, who chopped up the leaves (removed the thick stalks) and tossed them with some cucumber, tomato, jalapeño, lemon juice and salt.
We ate the salad for lunch along with some quesadillas. Cool, crispy and refreshing.
If you include purslane in your kitchen, please let us know how you use it in the comments.
Tomato, cucumber and purslane salad
Especially good with grilled seafood.
ingredients
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1 large cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthways, seeded and discarded, then chopped
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1 medium tomato, chopped
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1 bunch purslane, thick stems removed, leaves chopped, yielding about 1/2 cup chopped purslane
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1 chopped deseeded jalapeno chili pepper
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2-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
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Salt to taste
method
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Combine all ingredients in a serving bowl. Salt to taste.
Links:
Mediterranean Lettuce with Purslane and Mint from Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen
Verdolaga by World Crops
