In my last video, I managed to forage a good variety of edible plants from the desert. In this video, I bring them home to the kitchen and make them into a meal. I’ll include some details on the process that I used, but this is far from the only way to prepare these plants.
*Always remember that eating plants from the wild requires that YOU take full responsibility for identifying and understanding the plants.
Mormon Tea:
I brewed up the mormon tea as a simple beverage. This is a simple process similar to making any sort of tea. I cut up the stems in order to expose more of the plant to the water. Then, I prepare it one of two ways–either I bring the water to a boil and then pull it off the heat, letting it steep for another 15 minutes (as seen in the video), or–for a stronger tea, or to draw out more of the medicinal properties–simmer for 15 minutes and then remove from the heat and steep for another 15 minutes.
I’ve always enjoyed the taste of this tea. It has a very mild taste that I can only describe as “kind of a green taste” (I know that’s not very helpful, but it’s all I got).
Wild Lettuce and Pepper Grass:
Wild Lettuce is washed, cut, and read to be boiled
For the wild lettuce, I boiled it in water until the stems started to get tender. Wild lettuce can be quite bitter, so one way to reduce this is to drain and then refill the water at least once. After my second water boiled for a while, and the stems were soft, I drained the water, and seasoned it with chopped pieces of raw pepper grass and lime (foraged from my fridge).
Doing the one water change helped a lot with the bitterness. It had a hint of bitterness left in it, but nothing too overpowering. The lime and peppergrass flavors went well, but next time, I think I’d choppe the peppergrass a little smaller and make sure it’s mixed in well–it has a surprisingly strong peppery taste (a little bit goes a long ways). Overall, I enjoyed the wild lettuce. Some of the bites were a little tough, and I think I could have avoided that if I had focused on picking only the younger plants (or foraged earlier in the season).
Prickly Pear Cactus:
A lot of the prep work for these was done in my last video with the careful removal of the spines and glochids. Once home, I sliced the pad into thin strips and boiled in water for a while. The cactus pads produce
Prickly pear cactus pads ready to be boiled
a gooey slime that isn’t all that appetizing to eat, but if you can eliminate most of this if, after boiling for while, you drain the water, rinse the cactus pieces, and then refill the water and bring back to a boil. Once the pieces were tender, I drained them one last time and set them aside to combine with other plants later.
Thistle Root and Blue Dicks Corms:
Both the root and the corms (bulb-like roots of the blue dicks) were cut into smaller pieces and then simmered in water until soft and tender. After straining the water, I set them aside to combine with the cactus.
Blue dicks (corms, flower, and stems)
Blue dicks (corms, flower, and stems)
Prickly Pear Cactus, Roots and Corms:
After combining the cactus, root pieces, and the corms, I sautéed them in olive oil, salted them, and drizzled in a little lime.
As far the taste, the cactus (as I mentioned in the video) was collected out of season so it was expected to be a little fiberous, but it was much better than I expected. Doing the water change while boiling the cactus helped to get rid of a lot of that slime-like stuff which can sometimes be a little hard to get past for some. Sautéing in olive oil and salt gave them a nice flavor that I thought complimented the taste (which I would say falls somewhere in between a green bean and an asparagus…but mostly like a cactus)
The root and corms were delicious, and the olive oil and salt made them even better. The thistle root was a little woody, but I expected it would be since I picked it so late in it’s season. The corms cooked up nice and soft and have a potato-like texture.
Side Salad of Chickweed, Blue Dicks Stems, and Miner’s Lettuce:
The chickweed, blue dicks stems, and the miner’s lettuce were left raw and mixed into a salad. Each of these plants are fairly mild and chew up nice and easy so it made for a great salad. I’m not much of a fan of most salad dressings, and I didn’t want to drown out the tastes of the wild greesn, so I just went with a little lime and salt.