It's not everyday that you go out foraging in the wild and use foraged ingredients in your cooking, so when you do these things, it's a...celebration.
Not that you have to go to the wild to forage for food; you can do it in the vicinity of your house in the city. Perhaps the closest park or parkette. Your lawn. Or even right *in* your house, just look for dandelions busting out of the concrete.
What's foraged in the wild is weeded in the city.
But more and more these days, we're being told to eat our “weeds”…
So, let us review a list of the so-called weeds:
- Dandelions
- Plantain
- Nettles
- Garlic mustard
- Chickory
To mention some.
Today's ingredient of the wild, today's *magical* weed is the stinging nettle. Sauteed with red onion and then dumped on a pool of yoghurt, you get this beautiful contrast of hot and cold together with the umami-ness of the onion and the bitter'y depth of the green that nettle is. And the stinging, it dies with the heat.
Serves one
Ingredients:
3 handfuls of stinging nettle, chopped
1 teaspoon of minced red onion
1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 heaped tablespoons of organic plain yoghurt
2 slices of toasted wholegrain bread (pictured is sunflower seed / multi-wholegrain bread)
¼ of a medium-sized pear, chopped (optional)
Creative steps:
On a pan over medium heat, stir-fry the red onion with olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the onion starts to soften and become translucent. Add the nettle to the pan, season with salt to taste, and continue to stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the nettle slightly wilts and takes on a vibrant deep green colour. Add a few turns of freshly ground pepper, stir well to combine, and then turn off the heat. Start plating by first making a pool of yoghurt, then add the chopped pear followed by the nettle. Serve with toasted wholegrain bread on the side. Eat mindfully and enjoy!
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