Cooking with the Eatable Garden Plants from your yard
While some may be more obvious, many plants and trees in your yard or neighborhood park may be edible -- and some are even delicious! We’ve created a short guide to easy recipes you can make with some of them and followed each segment with a link you can use to buy some if you want to add them to your yard. Enjoy!
Dandelion Salad
Those bright yellow tiny flowers aren’t just eyesores, peskily dotting across your lawn. They contain nutrients like vitamins A, K, E, and C, folate, magnesium, iron, calcium, and potassium. They may even help control blood sugar, cholesterol, and healthy bacterial flora levels in the intestines.
From the days of the Great Depression came Dandelion Salad, a recipe demonstrated here by Clara at age 94 (she has since passed, but not before leaving us a bountiful array of helpful videos).
Rumor has it that Dandelion Tea is also nutritious and tasty! Not interested in the salad or tea, but you’d like to make a Dandelion Horn instrument? Try this out.
If you’re somehow short on dandelions in your area, buy some here to make your own Dandelion Salad.
White Mulberry Sorbet
Mulberries come with a unique flavor and are most often available in the late spring and summer. White mulberries are super rich in vitamin C and anthocyanins. In China, they are a blood tonic used to treat various illnesses, including anemia and fatigue.
When your tree drops its mulberries, you won’t be low on ways to use them. You’ll often find mulberries in jams, jellies, pies, tarts, and other baked goods like you would expect to see other berries. You can also sprinkle them on your cereal, into smoothies, or atop yogurt parfaits. If you want to try something fancier, you can make this flavorful Mulberry Sorbet. Want to make it for grown-ups only? Add a shot of your favorite complementary liqueur to the mix.
Feel like buying a mulberry tree to fancy up your yard? Go here for details.
Plum Preserves
Plums are nutrient-rich and develop into equally nutritious prunes as they age. A few bites of either are bursting with Vitamins A, C, K, Potassium, Copper, Manganese, and more, and prunes are a natural treatment for constipation.
This mouth-watering Plum Preserves recipe was inspired by Little House on the Prairie and called for 2 ½ pounds of fresh tart plums, 4 cups sugar, and 1 cup water. They’ll walk you through the steps and even suggest variations like adding ginger, vanilla, or lavender at the end. Make sure you cook it long enough to thicken correctly!
Ready to add a delicious and fragrant plum tree to your landscape? Check out the details here.
Grilled Chicory Risotto with Walnuts
Surprisingly, the chicory plant belongs to the Asteraceae family with sunflowers and daisies and has inner and outer leaves that are mild-tasting and bitter. All parts of the chicory plant are edible. Easy to spot with its light blue flowers, the plant is considered medicinal for a plethora of ailments, and the root is often boiled in hot water to make a flavorful caffeine-less “coffee.”
Try this out for a tasty variation on the expected chicory dishes. The chicory and walnuts will give texture to the risotto for an easy vegetarian side dish made in 35 minutes.
Would you enjoy some pretty blue chicory nearby? Get some here.
Black Raspberry Cobbler with Bisquick
Pleasantly rich in color, black raspberries are also brimming with vitamins and minerals like Vitamin A, C, and E, zinc, selenium, folic acid, anthocyanins, quercetin, and fiber, phytosterols, and more. They’re known to inhibit cancer growth and heal digestive issues.
When you get tired of eating them raw (as if!), go ahead and make a cobbler with them. This version is easy peasy and uses 1 ½ cups of black raspberries, water, sugar, cornstarch, butter, cinnamon, milk, and homemade Bisquick (you can use the store-bought variety instead, though). It’s good hot or cold, but we recommend it fresh out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Is it time to add a black raspberry bush or two to your vicinity? Give this page a glance to order.
Blueberry Hand Pies
Blueberries are incredibly nutrient-dense, with a 1-cup serving boasting 24% of the body’s RDI for Vitamin C, 36% RDI for Vitamin K, and 25% RDI of manganese. According to HealthLine, they are also superior in antioxidant levels compared to most well-known fruits and vegetables. They also may help lower blood pressure and prevent heart disease.
Make these with the grands or the littles, and they’ll disappear in no time! You’ll need your favorite pie crust recipe (or use theirs), 2 cups of blueberries, a lemon for zesting and fresh juice, flour, sugar, salt, and an egg. It makes six servings, ready in 35-40 minutes.
