You love exploring the natural world and you’re a bit of a gourmet too? Perfect! Today, we’re showing you how to use wild herbs to conjure up delicious salads, soups and more for a quick meal when you’re out. And along the way, you’ll be treating your body to a feast of valuable nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Let’s get going!
1. Daisies
Daisies are rich in vitamin C, magnesium, potassium and iron. You can gather the leaves, buds and blossoms all year round. But in spring in particular, the young, tender leaves are great in juices, salads and vegetable mixtures. The flowers, on the other hand, are an ideal garnish on many dishes, such as potato salads, soups and more. Today, we’d like to recommend a quick recipe for a great snack on your next trip:
Sweet blossom quark
Stir 6 tbsp milk and 2 tbsp honey into 250g low-fat quark. Shred enough of the daisy flowers to suit your taste and stir them into the quark mixture. Enjoy!
2. Dandelion
Dandelions are rich in essential vitamins and nutrients. They have a high potassium content, but also provide calcium and are packed with vitamins, especially beta carotene, vitamin E and vitamin C. Dandelions grow very quickly and both the leaves and the flowers, and even the roots, are edible. They are particularly suitable for making teas. The leaves and flowers, on the other hand, are simply perfect for use in a fresh wild herb salad:
Hearty dandelion salad
Fry a portion of bacon cubes in a pan or wide pot – we recommend the Esbit Cookset CS2350 when you’re out and about. Add some cubed white bread and stir constantly until it has turned brown. Chop some garlic and add it to the pan at the end. Remove the pan or pot from the heat and add two or three handfuls of dandelion leaves. Ideally, use the small, tender leaves, washed well of course. Now fine-tune the salad with some salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Bon Appetit!
3. Nettles
People are afraid of nettles because of their skin-irritating properties and so they tend to avoid them. But they are actually a great source of vitamins and nutrients. They contain lots of iron, calcium and particularly vitamin C. Like dandelions, nettles grow fast. The leaves, which have a delicately spicy flavour, are the best parts to use in outdoor cooking. Nettles are versatile and can be used, for example, as a substitute for spinach. We recommend making tea with nettles when you’re out and about – it’s said to have a stimulating effect, so it’s perfect when you need to be wide awake to start your next adventure:
Quick nettle tea:
Place 3-4 teaspoons of fresh nettle leaves in a cup. Heat 200ml of water and pour it over the nettle leaves. Cover and leave to stand for 10-15 minutes, strain the tea and enjoy your short break.
PS: For heating the water outdoors, we recommend one of our compact stainless steel or aluminium cooksets (link to CS585). They are absolutely perfect for heating up water and light meals.
4. Wild garlic
Wild garlic is undoubtedly one of the best known and frequently used wild herbs. It tastes like garlic, pungent and fresh. Most of the flavour is in the leaves, and only as long as the wild garlic is not in flower. But wild garlic is not only useful because of its stand-out flavour. It is also rich in minerals and vitamin C, contains magnesium and has an antibacterial effect. So it’s also perfect for strengthening your immune system, particularly if you’re out and about a lot. To make best use of wild garlic, we’re recommending a simple classic that you can also prepare quickly outdoors:
Spicy wild garlic pesto:
Take a good handful of wild garlic leaves, wash and dry them thoroughly. Chop the leaves very finely and then mix them with olive oil and a little salt. If you’d prefer something a bit more substantial, stir in some parmesan – perfect for a quick pasta dish outdoors.
5. Ribwort
Ribwort is undoubtedly not as well known, relatively speaking, as some of the other wild herbs, but it really is a great all-rounder. It’s a real superfood, containing valuable potassium, silicic acid, vitamins A and C. But ribwort has also been found to be a good remedy for treating insect bites. Basically, all the parts of the ribwort can be harvested and used. In outdoor cooking, the leaves are excellent raw in salads or cooked as a substitute for spinach. You can also make a tea with them, or boil them down to a syrup – which can also help if you have a cough. We recommend that you give the following soup a try – maybe you’ll acquire a taste for it:
Hearty ribwort soup with potatoes: Take 2 handfuls of ribwort leaves, wash them and cut them along the longitudinal fibres. Peel and cube 1 large onion and 3 large potatoes. Sweat the onions briefly in a little olive oil and then add the potatoes. After 2 minutes, add the ribwort and 1 litre of vegetable stock. Leave it all to boil for 10 minutes and then season with salt and pepper. Delicious!
PS: Here too, you can use our CS2350 Cookset with alcohol burner for cooking outdoors. The pots are large enough to cook larger meals now and again.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Not everything that you find in the forests and meadows is edible. Sometimes, edible wild herbs can look very similar to inedible poisonous plants. To avoid confusion, we recommend that you always take an illustrated guide when you go on your trips.
