Liven up your food with wild herbs

Liven up your food with wild herbs! Wild herbs add variety to your menu and are a good source of many important minerals and trace elements. Also, wild herbs have very few allergenic properties, making them a good source of enrichment for mindful eating habits, especially if you have a delayed food allergy, commonly called food intolerances.

Breakfast

Wild herb quark

• 100 g wild herb mixture (mixture of eight different salad herbs), such as ground elder, wild mallow, chickweed, shepherd’s purse, dead-nettle, dandelion, campion, wild arugula—varies depending on season
• 250 g quark (can be substituted by goat or sheep cream cheese)
• 100 ml mineral water
• Salt freshly ground pepper

Preparation:

Peel and slice onions and shallots. Wash the herbs and shake dry.

Mix quark with mineral water until smooth, and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the herb mixture. Cover the quark and allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Wild herb scrambled eggs

Makes four servings:

• 250 g bacon, diced
• 1 large onion
• 50 g ground elder
• 6 chicken eggs (can be substituted for goose or quail eggs)
• Salt, pepper, paprika
• 3 Tbsp mineral water

Preparation:

Finely chop onions. Sort ground elder and cut into small pieces. Render the bacon in the pan and sauté chopped onion until golden brown. Add ground elder and allow to soften at low heat, stirring repeatedly. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add mineral water, and whisk gently with a fork. Add the egg mixture to the pan and prepare like scrambled eggs. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper.

Main Dish

Pear and carrot soup with common sorrel and wood sorrel

Makes four servings:

• 250 g peeled and finely chopped carrots
• 1 large pear
• 30 g butter (alternatively, clarified butter)
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 finely diced shallots
• 0.8 l strong vegetable stock without yeast
• 60 g common sorrel
• 10 g wood sorrel
• 4 Tbsp crème fraîche (alternatively, natural soy yogurt)
• Salt, freshly ground white pepper

Preparation:

Melt the butter, add the finely chopped shallots, carrots, and sugar and sauté until glazed. Add stock and spices, and allow carrots to simmer until soft, approximately 20 minutes. Peel and core pear. Cut common sorrel into very fine strips. Add pear and crème fraîche to the carrots and purée in a blender. Season soup again afterwards. Place common sorrel on preheated deep plates, fill with hot soup, and garnish with wood sorrel. Instead of sorrel, cilantro also makes a nice compliment to this soup, but you will need about 50 g of cilantro and a few ground coriander seeds.

Risotto with common sorrel and wood sorrel

Makes four servings:

• 180 g rice
• 50 g finely diced vegetables: carrots, celery, and leek
• 1 finely diced onion
• 100 ml fresh cream (alternatively, sweetened soy milk)
• 30 g common sorrel leaves
• 20 g wood sorrel (hare’s foot)
• Salt, freshly ground pepper 

Preparation:

Cook the rice with chopped vegetables in a pressure cooker with a pinch of salt for about 10–15 minutes, allow to stand for another 5 minutes, and drain. Sauté the diced onions in butter (or clarified butter), add rice, and fill up with cream. Heat and stir occasionally. At the end, add fine strips of cut common sorrel and season generously again. Serve on deep plates and garnish with wood sorrel. (A fish fillet with crispy skin is very delicious when paired with this dish!)

Asparagus and tomatoes in gelée with chickweed pesto

Makes four servings:

• 400 g white and green asparagus, cooked
• 2 beefsteak tomatoes
• 0.2 l strong asparagus stock
• 4 gelatin sheets
• Salt, freshly ground pepper
• 50 g chickweed
• 1 Tbsp roasted pine nuts
• 2 Tbsp hazelnut oil

Preparation:

Peel and dice beefsteak tomatoes. Bring the asparagus stock to boil, reduce a little, and strain through a cloth. Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for a few minutes, squeeze out, and add to the hot stock. (You should have about 0.15 l of stock remaining after the reduction step.) Season again to taste. Brush a small loaf pan with a small amount of oil and line with plastic wrap. Cut the asparagus in half lengthwise and layer with tomatoes in the pan. Fill pan with warm broth and allow to thicken overnight. For the pesto, cut chickweed into small pieces and crush in mortar with a pinch of salt. Add pine nuts and also crush (thin with asparagus stock as needed). Fold in the nut oil, and season to taste again. Remove the cold terrine from the pan, slice with a very sharp knife, and serve with fresh chickweed, asparagus spears, and pesto.

Grilled chicken breast with wild garlic marinade

Makes four servings:

• 400 g chicken breast fillets
• 40 g wild garlic spread
• Salt, pepper 

Preparation:

Cut chicken breast fillets into slices and cover generously with wild garlic spread. Add salt and pepper as needed. Marinate in fridge for at least one hour. The marinated chicken fillets will release their best aroma on the grill, but they can also be fried in a pan with some rapeseed (canola) oil. Pair this dish with potato salad, rice, or noodles.