Tuesday eating from your yard tip on Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album). If you have any open dirt you most likely have Lamb’s Quarters. Consider it a free gift to fill your tummy. The cooked leaves and soaked seeds are edible, as are the very young leaves uncooked. The young leaves are tender, but like all of us get tougher with age, so pick them when they are below 12 inches. You can use Lamb’s Quarters much like you do spinach. My dear friend, Rose Bernstein, makes a variation of spanakopita with Lamb’s Quarters and feta cheese baked in phyllo dough. Sue Dawson adds the young leaves in her salad. You can also mix the leaves in your pork wonton filling, egg dishes, stir fries or soup. I had read about Lamb’s Quarters use in East Indian cooking, so with Lamb’s Quarters in hand I went to Suji’s, my neighborhood East Indian market. The minute the owner saw me he said where did you get that? He said I order a big container of that every winter. He suggested making saag with the Lamb’s Quarters and fresh Fenugreek. The perennial favorite at our local wild edible pot lucks is Kay Young’s creamed lamb’s quarters with mushrooms from her book Wild Seasons. Euell Gibbons, Roger Welsch and Kay Young all recommend cooking Lamb’s Quarters with bacon finished off with vinegar and an egg, so it has to be good!! I’ve also heard that the First Nation people used the dried seeds to make flour, but I don’t know the tribes involved and haven’t confirmed that little tidbit. Please let me know if anyone has first hand knowledge using the dried seed to make flour. How do you eat your Lamb’s Quarters?
