I wouldn't want to imagine Mexico's street food without tlacoyos con quelites (grilled corn cakes with
lamb's-quarters) or Italy without ravioli d'ortica (pasta stuffed with stinging nettles).
Wild plants such as dandelion greens,
lamb's-quarters, and others are more nutritious than the lettuce sold in the supermarkets.
Lamb's-Quarters: Steamed
lamb's-quarters with apple cider vinegar.
And when we weed our gardens, we might find that the purslane,
lamb's-quarters and pigweed we yank out and toss in the compost bin are as good to eat as the crops we take time and effort to cultivate!
My favorite newly discovered wild green is
lamb's-quarters (Chenopodium album).
Lamb's-quarters has more iron, protein, vitamin [B.sub.12] and vitamin C than raw cabbage or spinach.
It is often used here with poke,
lamb's-quarters, wild lettuce, and dandelion leaves to make a "mess of greens", being cooked in two hot water baths and seasoned with salt, pepper, butter and vinegar.
Primary Sources: Carrots (one raw carrot = 7,930 IU; the Juwarot variety has the highest vitamin A content), sweet potatoes, most DGLVs (spinach = 14,850 IU),
lamb's-quarters, dandelions, violet leaves, parsley, garden cress, butternut and hubbard squashes, pumpkins and cantaloupes.
