Chick Pea Salad with Purslane and Arugula -

Purslane salad

When I was in high school I was a botany nerd. I spent time identifying wild flowers, I liked to grow plants from seeds and spent hours studying seed catalogs, and I wanted to be a pomologist when I grew up. Pomology? The study of the cultivation of fruit.Yeah, I know. Way to fit in!

I spent the summer after ninth grade reading and rereading a book from the 1940s I'd found in the library called Fruits for the Home Garden by U.P. Hedrick which was an encyclopedic listing of all the fruits, particularly apples, in cultivation. It was filled with descriptions of apple varieties no longer cultivated commercially that had romantic and poetic names like the Chenango Strawberry or Cox's Orange Pippin. It was U.P. Hedrick who inspired my pomologist aspirations. No, I had no idea what a pomologist actually did.

As a botany nerd, another of my inspirations was an amateur botanist named Euell Gibbons who had written an unlikely sounding bestseller called Stalking the Wild Asparagus in the early 1960s which was about edible plants that grow wild with recipes for preparing them. From his book I learned to identify a number of edible plants although in high school I had little interest in cooking so I didn't make very many of these recipes. I do remember using staghorn sumac from which I made indian lemonade, which was pretty delicious, but I think the only other thing I cooked was pokeweed as part of an 11th grade ecology class project.  I led my class in a tour of edible plants in Rock Creek Park, we collected pokeweed shoots, and then I cooked them for the class.

Hey, it was the early 70s; this sort of thing was completely normal, at least at my school. The high school I went to was a small "alternative" school where the students were allowed to come to school barefoot if they wished and we addressed our teachers by their first name. My ecology teacher was a man who had worked as an aerospace engineer but wanted to do something more meaningful with his life (I think it was one of those tune in, turn on, and drop out sort of things) and found himself teaching math and science to a group of high school students. This was the poor man who had to teach me algebra 2 and trigonometry and would spend his time endlessly explaining various concepts of algebra and trigonometry all the while hoping to see some flicker of recognition from me. It never happened. I don't know how I passed.

Most of the cooking of the pokeweed was actually done by one of my friends who was an accomplished cook for a high-schooler and she directed me in the boiling of the polk shoots and she made the hollandaise that sauced them. I don't remember how they tasted -- I've never made them again so they could not have been that good -- but I did get an A on the project. My ecology teacher said, "well, uh, I really don't know anything about this stuff but you seem like you do so I'm giving you an A."  Again, this was the early 70s. Those were different times.

Another edible plant I was introduced to by Stalking the Wild Asparagus was purslane which is actually cultivated as a vegetable in other parts of the world. I never really ate it except to nibble on raw pieces which were pleasantly acidic.  But  through the years I've noticed it growing in sidewalk cracks or along alleys, and last year one of the vendors at the farmer's market was selling it. I also noticed it growing as a weed in my garden plot but this year, instead of weeding it out, I weeded around it. As I was waiting for my purslane to get a little bigger I came across a reference to purslane in a blog I just started reading called Dirt Sun Rain. Steven, the blog's author,  uses purslane in salads which seemed like a good place to start and when I googled for purslane recipes, almost the first thing I hit was this recipe in the NY Times which ran as part of this article:

Chick Pea Salad with Purslane and Arugula

1 cup drained cooked or canned chick peas

1 teaspoon capers

2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 scallion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

2 tablespoons lemon juice, or as needed

Salt

1 1/2 cups arugula leaves, torn into pieces

1 1/2 to 2 cups purslane with tender stems, cut into 1-inch lengths, or 3/4 cup purslane leaves

1. In a bowl, combine chick peas, capers, garlic and scallion. Add olive oil, lemon juice, and salt to taste.

2. Add arugula and purslane, and mix well. Season with additional olive oil, lemon juice, or salt if desired.

I made lunch for my parent's yesterday and they are the perfect people to try purslane with. It carries them back to my botany nerd days which they're very sentimental about. My mother particularly likes to reminisce about things like the time I grew marijuana plants that I told her were snapdragon plants which she then planted around our mailbox. Luckily for me while I was formulating my plans to surreptitiously buy real snapdragon plants and replace the marijuana plants, the marijuana plants all died. Just for the record,  as a botany nerd I wasn't interested in smoking marijuana, just growing it.

The purslane from my garden is not as succulent as the varieties I see at the farmer's market and the taste was not distinctive, just pleasantly mild and slightly acidic, but this salad was absolutely delicious -- lemony and garlicky with the purslane and chick peas acting as a nice foil for the sharper flavors. And an interesting fact about purslane: it apparently has more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy green vegetables. This stuff is good for you! Which is good to know because I now plan to get rid of all the purslane in my garden plot by making this salad. I really enjoyed it.

Comments

[ann]

oooh, i'll have to keep an eye out for this, sounds delicious!
btw, i was an archaeology nerd in high school
nerds are cool!

[Miz S]

Didn't one of your sisters smoke a lot of pot? It was Sarah, wasn't it?

[bernadette]

On Mary's heels, or is it lid?

There is so much to digest here today; I may have to stalk you.

Alas, didn't Euell eventually learn that not all parts of a pine tree were edible?

[sher]

Euell Gibbons!! I had his book too. He was an interesting guy. The salad looks great and I think Euell would enjoy it.

[steven]

Thanks for the link, if I were closer to Baltimore I would hand-deliver all the purslane you'd ever want!

One of my first garden triumphs as a teenager was a particulary sticky, purple female of the cannibis indica variety. I was never much of a pot smoker, but the friends were mighty appreciative.

[discount family oracle online]

Nice pic! Purslane - sounds like the hero of epic tale, as in Sir Purslane slew the evil Cholesteroid.

[Cazza]

Any chance of a photo of purslane in the wild so to speak? To see if it is the same as something we get down here. And does arugula go by any other names?

Forget the cookbook. I need a phrase book. American/Australian!!

The salad sounds deelish.

Ah.... the early 70s. What memories.

[Vanessa]

I've seen Purslane growing all over the place and never knew what it was. I USED to be interested in one weed in particular, yes, back in the 70's, but that's another story...

[the bee]

I loved this post for all the wrong reasons. I thought you ladies were young rule followers.
Imagine my surprise and delight.
My youngest brother would admire your arborial skills.Did you ever tell your mom this story? You should. Miz S , we know you never did anything bad.(bwahhaaaa)

[lobstersquad]

I´m so bad at stalking wild asparagus. Here it´s quite a competitive spring occupation while on a walk, and I hardly ever spot any. But since everyone else does, I´m lucky enough to eat the results.
I don´t know what that purslane is but it sounds very good. I´ll google around, and see if I can find any.

[angela]

Well if you were a nerd than I certainly am. I annoy all my french friends because I always have to stop and identify new flowers. If I can't figure them out by looking at the plant structure or leaf pattern, I take a picture and look them up on the internet.

[Mrs. S]

I came over from Miz S' page (she said if I didn't she'd beat me up - honestly!) and will most likely be back again on my own.

Your story reminded me of one of the stories in OUR family - My grandmother was washing my uncle's pants and found a little packet of seeds in the pocket. Thinking she'd plese him by growing whatever they were, she planted several under his bedroom window (thankfully facing the back of the house) and with her incredible green thumb soon had a lovely Marijuana plant that was OVER SIX FEET TALL. The boys didn't venture back there much, so they didn't notice it until it was viewable from their window, and they quickly bit the bullet and explained to her what it was and she let them have it for smoking purposes. Seriously, how cool was my Granny back in the day? I'm still not sure what she thought those seeds must be, though.

[Margaret]

We used to make jokes about poor Euell--didn't he do granola commercials or something? This post makes me want to research exotic plant life. But I'm not very adventurous about what I eat.

[Julie]

Ann, archeology nerd does sound pretty cool.

Miz S, hhhmmmm.... now which sister was it?

bernadette, Mary's my younger siter. I'm not sure what Euell reference you're making. Surely he never told us that than any part of the pine other than pine nuts were edible. But perhaps you know something I don't.

Sher, I can't believe you also know of Euell Gibbons. And he was a cool guy.

Steven, I think that is quite a garden triumph. I would even go so far as to say it beats tomatoes and zucchinis.

DFO, Sir Purslane slew the evil Cholesteroid and then Sir Purslane and the fair (yet slightly bitter) maiden Arugula lived happily ever after...

cazza, here's a
purslane picture. Apparently it grows in Australia also.

Vanessa, yes, that weed seemed to have had lots of interest.

Bets, yes, my mother has known the story for years and seems to delight in the retelling.

Ximena, you actually go stalking asparagus -- that's so cool!

Angela, the taking a picture thing is a great way to figure out plants you don't know.

Mrs S, very good story. You're grandmother sounds as if she has a much greener thumb than my mother. Lucky for me my mother's thumb is not green at all.

Margaret, yes, Euell advertised Post Grape Nuts on television. The flavor reminded him of wild hickory nuts or something.

[bernadette]

Sisters ~ I adore both of your blogs!

Acting hip is not my forte.

Euell could be funny: http://www.ruralvermont.com/vermontweathervane/issues/winter/97012/eatpine.shtml

[Heidi]

Pomology. I must be very tired, because the "m" looked to me like an "r" and an "n". Pornology? Wow, two new words in a single blog post!

[Luisa]

I'm glad you tried this one out because as much as I love purslane, chickpeas are less of a favorite and so I didn't even clip this one last week... sounds tasty, though!

[Julie]

Bernadette, Euell was apparently very thorough in his research.

Heidi, if pornology were a degree program I bet you could get your degree online.

Luisa, I'm bowled over that you're familiar enough with purslane to love it. Here I was thinking of it as some mysterious thing that very few have tasted.

[Cazza]

Thank you for taking the time to link a photo. Now I need to find the plant!!!

[Michelle]

Dang! I swear I commented on here, and I can't for the life of me remember what *witty* thing I said! The overall gist however, was: YUM! Purslane is not around very often here, but one vendor I know at the Farmer's Market has it occasionally, so I'm going to make your recipe next time I see it!

[Julie]

Cazza, no problem. Let me know if you find it. (Although since it's the middle of winter in Melbourne I guess it won't be til summer.)

Michelle, your comment was probably eaten when Typepad was having problems the other night. I'm also checking out purslane from the farmer's market this weekend. I want to see how it compares with the stuff from my garden plot.

[LUANNE]

wat happens in pomology? i am a nerd to and i am trying to see if i want to be a pomologist. what kind of things do you study about the fruit???

[Aaron]

Awesome post, awesome salad. We are sharing this with our readers at our health blog www.marksdailyapple.com. Thanks for the cool post :)

[Julie]

Great, Aaron!

[Mary]

wow, i was looking up verdago because a plot neighbor in my community garden lets it grow and that's how i found purslane and that's how i found this! so thankful for the salad recipe. i think i'll make it tomorrow night. sounds like it'd be delish with some fresh baked and buttered bread.

[jazz euell gibbons]

Le Vésinet, France
July 21, 2008

Bravo for your efforts to keep alive the memory of Euell Gibbons who did so much for the cause of
edible so-called weeds -- called "weeds" because
people are not aware that they are edible and possibly also NUTRITIOUS, as is dramatically true in the case of purslane, one of nature's richest sources of vitamin E.

I urge you to propose to that Postal Service
that it issue a commemorative stamp to honor Euell Gibbons. I can imagine that you could enlist
a lot of people to support your effort. I offer my
support, in fact my enthusiastic support.

All ze best (as we Americans in Paris have learned
to say),

Jazz De Cou

I can hardly wait to try the recipe for purslane,
chick peas and arugula (I call it roquette) salad. Those three vegetables are among my favorites,
so I know that eating them together will inevitably
be a memorable experience.