Common Hogweed

Hogweed is undoubtedly a worthwhile edible wild plant: it’s delicious and tastes vaguely like celery, its perfume reminds me carrot leaves, but has a distinctive, delicate flavour. Hogweed has a taste like nothing else.

Botanists call it Heracleum sphondylium, everybody else call it Hogweed or Common hogweed; the North American species Heracleum maximum (Cow parsnip) is sometimes included as a subspecies of H. spondylium.

It is not a good idea to sample this plant without positive identification, as it closely resembles Water Hemlock, Poison Hemlock and Giant Cow Parsnip, all of which are extremely dangerous!

Wow, lucky thing! Common hogweed and Bladder campion

Today I took a trip in the meadow and Common hogweed was there, so attractive with its tiny, still folded leaves…I just couldn’t resist. When I was picking it up, I saw some young Bladder campion leaves, not far away. Onother one of my favorite weeds! I couldn’t just let her sit up there, waiting to bloom. Not at all.

So here’s my “light” meal for tomorrow: a quick look in the fridge and in the pantry…i need some mushrooms, but not porcini, they’re too much intrusive. So let’s use some Yellow Foot Mushroom! So sweet and delicate, excellent!

Here’s the mini quiches recipe

Ingredients:

• 300 g Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)
• 100 g Bladder campion (Silene vulgaris)
• 2 eggs
• 80 gr Goat-cheese
• 3 tablespoons of Greek yogurt
• 1 bunch of Mushrooms, Yellow Foot Mushroom (Cantharellus lutescens)
• 1 small onion (or leek)
• 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt

Directions:

Wash and boil hogweed for about 10 minutes in salted water. Squeeze the water out and chop. I added Bladder campion halfway through, because they are cooked in a flash.

In the meantime put dried mushrooms in warm water, until they are reconstituted. Then soak, strain and chop them. Brown the onion in oil for some minutes in a large frying pan.

Stir all the ingredients in a bowl, add some salt (to taste) an a small amount of oil. Beat until combined (to speed up the process you can use a food processor with dough blade).

Fill your muffin tins and bake in preheated oven at 356°F (180°C) for about 20 minutes.

You can serve them warm or freeze them, in an airtight container (be sure to them cool down before freezing).