Easy salad from care free greens.

[nullzero]

Made this salad with the following greens;
Dandelion greens
Malva sp. (not sure which one assuming it was  Malva parviflora)
Silene Inflata
Plantago coronopus
Plantago major (young leaves)
Nasturtium (flower and a few leaves)
Sugar snap peas
Garlic chives


It was delicious, better then any store bought salad you could get. Unfortunately I did not take a picture after I added the feta cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. All these greens I used, had no pest issues and grew mostly all like weeds.

I love edible plants that reward with no effort  .

[HMHausman]

Very interesting looking salad.  I love the concept here, but every time I try to get some greens going there is always a bitterness factor that I find unappealing.  Was this salad bitter at all?

[nullzero]

Not bitter at all, my father loved the salad. Was nothing left, and he is more sensitive to bitter things then me. He wont eat just Arugula or anything like it even with dressing.

Dandelion greens, lettuce+arugula flavor with slight bitterness at the end (2 or 3 out of 10 for bitterness). I make sure to harvest younger tender dandelion greens with less bitterness (I have been selectively culling bitter tasting dandelions in the garden, I let the the good tasting ones stay and go to seed. About 30% or so of the salad.

Malva. sp is a very neutral lettuce type taste green. Great additional to any salad does not overtake any taste and enhances the texture and subsistence of the salad. About 20-30% of the salad was this. 1 out of 10 for bitterness.

Nasturtium has a peppery spinach flavor on the leaves, flowers are a sweet peppery flavor. About 10% of the salad.

Silene inflata has a mellow arugula taste with a slight herbal aromatic finish, bitterness is on the lower end on this (2 out of 10). 10-20% of the salad.

Plantago coronopus, has a great mild lettuce like taste. 1 out of 10 on bitterness. About 5% of the salad.

Plantago common, has a unique earthy nutty taste with a sharp finish. I make sure to get young leaves to reduce the bitterness. Bitterness 4 out of 10. About 5% of the salad.

Garlic chives, excellent flavor added with no bitterness. Just a nice slightly sweet garlic+chive taste.

On the bitterness scale I would say Spinach is a 2 out of 10, and Arugula is a 4-5 out of 10. Raw Aloe vera with skin is a 7-8 out of 10.

I find when the salad is well balanced with different greens the bitterness factor goes down by a lot. The next salads are going to become more creative , with Kale, Toona sinensis, and others.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Hi Stephen,
Awesome gourmet salad...looks yummy Them vegetarian nut's will go loco...to take a bite of your salad

Thanks for sharing

[zands]

I do this once in a while---.

Optimum way to eat these greens in a salad is to pound them a bit until you see juice appearing
Then dress with the vinegar and oil and let sit for a while. A nice Chinese vinegar is this  Chinkiang Black Vinegar  famous one. Easily found in Asian stores

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2013/02/fuchsia-dunlop-chinatown-shopping-guide-chinese.html

[nullzero]

I do this once in a while---.

Optimum way to eat these greens in a salad is to pound them a bit until you see juice appearing
Then dress with the vinegar and oil and let sit for a while. A nice Chinese vinegar is this  Chinkiang Black Vinegar  famous one. Easily found in Asian stores

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2013/02/fuchsia-dunlop-chinatown-shopping-guide-chinese.html

Thanks for the tip, that Chinese vinegar sounds tasty. The leaves can also be fermented as well. The leaves are good enough not to require much dressing up.

[red durian]

great stuff.  never had a decent dandelion.  presently only eating katuk and basil leaves raw.

[nullzero]

great stuff.  never had a decent dandelion.  presently only eating katuk and basil leaves raw.

May want to try some of these plants over where you live. Since most of them are classified as weeds, they should be highly adaptable to your climate.