Sunday, April 24, 2011

Eating the Weeds - Henbit

Well what da ya know?  I’ve got more edibles in my front lawn.  I’d call it grass, but since less than a quarter of the greenery is actually a grass, I’ll just call it lawn.  Sounds more formal too.
Anyways, before we mow the lawn for the first time this year, I wanted to try and identify all of the non-grass species growing rampant in the front yard.  One weed I noticed a few days ago is called Henbit.  Lo and behold, it’s actually edible!  Yesterday I picked & washed a handful of it, chopped it up and tossed it into my scrambled eggs.  And I didn’t die.  So I figured I’d let the rest of the family in on the green bounty growing outside our doorstep and made everyone egg burritos with wild onion and henbit for breakfast this morning.
The general consensus is that it tastes pretty bland.  I thought it tastes kind of like parsley, with maybe a slight hint of pepper.  At least it looked good in the eggs. 

4 comments:

  1. I'm curious about the wild onion. Do they taste like a scallion or do the have a strong or week flavor?

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  2. Free wild food is great. What an adventure to identify it all! :)

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  3. YM, the wild onion bulb part tastes more like garlic, not too strong, but the greens taste very strong oinon-y. Then there's a middle part, between the bulp & top that is too tough to eat, I just use it as a flavoring in soups & stews & toss it before eating. I've diced a bunch of the green tops & dehydrated them & the taste is toned down & are quite yummy that way.

    SFG & MT,
    Free food ROCKS! :)

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