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Survival in anomalous zones

Edible plants of the middle zone

If you get lost in an anomalous zone, or in some other way find yourself alone with wild nature without many of the benefits of modern civilization, after a while you will definitely become preoccupied with getting food. Starving to death in a wooded area middle zone It’s difficult for Russia, but even if you are a bad fisherman and hunter, there is enough tasty and healthy food for your soul. Vegetarian. A city dweller will immediately present fruits and vegetables in the windows, but besides them there are a lot of edible plants. We will try to talk about some of them on this page, and in order to learn more about plants, visit our herbalist school.

	Young stems, roots and crushed buds can be eaten. The broth from the stems tastes similar to chicken broth. Be careful when collecting hogweed, as its juice contains special substances - furanocoumarins, which increase the skin's sensitivity to ultraviolet radiation. After contact with hogweed, you can get severe sunburn even in the shade.
	Hawthorn prickly They also call him “boyarka”, “lady”. It is a member of the Rosaceae family. Transcarpathia is called the homeland of wild hawthorn, but even three hundred kilometers south of Moscow it is easy to find hawthorn. And yet, in the middle zone, hawthorn is more often bred than it appears spontaneously.
	The leaves and stems can be eaten raw. Contains many vitamins. Good for cooking soups.
	Chilim (Water chestnut, Rogulnik) It is found in the central zone and in the south of Russia and Central Asia. Chilim fruits are very nutritious and can be eaten raw. They can also be boiled and baked. They have a very pleasant and delicate taste.
	For those who don’t know, these are the fruits of oak. You can make porridge or flatbreads from them. To prepare, acorns need to be peeled, cut, soaked in water for 2-3 days, changing it periodically, then boiled and crushed into a paste. You can fry flatbreads from it. Dried acorn meal can be stored for a long time.
	Horsetail Found everywhere. It is better not to confuse it with swamp horsetail, which is poisonous. The spore-bearing spikelets can be eaten either raw or cooked. By the way, ancient Russian cooking offers a unique recipe - pies with young horsetail. You can try making this delicacy after you’ve returned home safely.
	Ivan-tea (Fireweed angustifolia) Contains a lot of useful vitamins and microelements. You can eat shoots and rhizomes, raw or boiled. A tasty and healing drink is brewed from dried leaves, which from ancient times until approximately the reign of Peter I served as an excellent substitute for tea for Russian people.
	Clover Contains a lot of proteins. Leaves and young shoots can be consumed boiled or pureed. You can make flat cakes from the puree. It is popularly believed that clover purifies the blood.
	Stinging nettle Young shoots and leaves from the top of nettles can be added to soups and salads. Contains many vitamins and quickly replenishes their deficiency in the body.
	White water lily (Water lily) The rhizomes are eaten boiled and fried. You can bake it on coals, after cutting it into pieces. The dried root can be ground into flour, which can be stored for a long time, and baked into flat cakes.
	Burdock Burdock roots can be consumed raw, boiled and fried. They contain a lot of protein and vitamins.
	You can make soup from the root leaves. They can also be consumed raw.
	Can be found in clearings in coniferous forests, fires, and forest edges. Rosettes of leaves and cobs are eaten.
	Dandelion officinalis It is best to eat young leaves, which are an excellent blood purifier. Roasted dandelion roots make an excellent coffee substitute.
	The shoots and leaves have a fresh, slightly pungent taste. You can make a salad from them.
	Young shoots and leaves can be consumed raw or cooked. It is advisable to clean and rinse before use.
	Crayfish necks (Snake knotweed) The entire above-ground part of the plant can be eaten. When dried and crushed, it can be stored for a long time and used to prepare a tasty and nutritious broth.
	The peeled stems can be eaten raw. Also used for preparing many dishes. Contains a large number of vitamins and microelements.
	Reed (Rogoz) Young shoots can be eaten raw. It is good to roast rhizomes on coals. Sugar can be extracted from cattail rhizomes. To do this, peeled rhizomes need to be boiled and then the resulting syrup evaporated. Also, flour obtained from dried rhizomes can be used to make flat cakes.
	Knotweed (Knotweed) Young greens are tasty and nutritious, containing many vitamins. proteins and sugar. You can make broth from dried knotweed.
	All parts of the plant can be eaten raw or cooked.

We completely forgot that wild herbs can also be eaten. Especially when we are outside the city limits, wild plants can become not only a tasty reinforcement, but also a source of many vitamins and microelements, a source of “living power”. And in emergency situations, it can save you from hunger.

Snooze. The young leaves of the tree are suitable for food.

Dream leaves

Rogoz. Boiled or roasted young shoots and rhizomes are suitable for food.

Blooming Sally. Young root shoots and shoots are consumed boiled like asparagus and cabbage. The rhizomes taste sweet and can be eaten raw or cooked.

Burdock. Young leaves and shoots are edible (old leaves are edible, but tasteless), roots in any form are suitable for food: raw, boiled, baked, fried (but only the roots of the first year are edible). You can’t eat burdock in large quantities, you can get poisoned.

Dandelion. Dandelion leaves are edible; to remove their bitterness, you can scald them with boiling water or soak them in salted water.

Cuff. The leaves and young shoots of the cuff are edible.

Wheatgrass. Wheatgrass rhizomes are eaten raw and boiled. During the war, wheatgrass rhizomes were boiled in salted water.

Troll flower swimsuit. Boiled unopened buds are used for food. The roots are poisonous and can only be eaten after heat treatment.

Sagebrush. Wormwood leaves are bitter and are used as a seasoning for fatty foods.

Goose foot edible. Leaves, young shoots, roots are suitable for food.

Shepherd's Purse, young leaves are edible.

Licorice is naked. Its root is edible and tastes bittersweet.

Large, common plantain. Young leaves are used for salads, cutlets, soups, and purees. The taste becomes more pleasant if sorrel leaves are added to plantain leaves. Seeds fermented in milk can be used as a seasoning for dishes.

Sorrel. Everyone knows about sorrel, the soup made from it is simply delicious, well, you can eat it raw, the leaves are edible.

Clover is edible. Flowering clover heads are used for brewing tea, making soups and seasonings, and young leaves are used for salads and soups. Clover greens are very tender, cook quickly, and if you add sorrel to it, you can make delicious, nutritious soups.

30.09.2015

One of the cornerstones of the System’s foundation is the human need for food. One of the main reasons why people need money and why they work for the System is the need to buy food.

In this article we will cover the topic of how you can partially or fully realize your natural right to free food, how you can weaken your dependence on the System for food and thereby reduce the need to earn money to buy food. We will talk about the gifts of nature and wild edible plants.

Often the topic of eating wild plants comes up when it comes to survival in some extreme situations, when a person finds himself outside civilization, face to face with wild nature, or in situations of any disasters and famine.

In this article we will approach the topic wild plants and gifts of nature from a slightly different position. Although the current food situation in the world, and especially in “developed”, “civilized” countries, by and large can be equated precisely to a food catastrophe and an extreme situation: store shelves are bursting with “food”, there is a lot of food, but nothing to eat! That is, there are very few truly edible, high-quality, pure natural products; you need to look for them well in order to be able to buy them. In stores and markets there are only artificial industrial and GMO “food products”. And at the same time, they also cost money, and often quite significant ones.

So, in order to depend less on the System for food, you can switch to eating partially or completely on wild edible plants and gifts of nature. Wild growing edible plants you can collect them in the forest, there are a lot of them within the city, in parks, if you have your own plot of land near your house or cottage, then you can grow wild edible plants there. This way, you will have less time to spend searching and preparing food, you will be confident in the purity of the plants you eat, and growing wild plants does not require much time and effort, they will grow on their own.

It is very important to realize that in order to depend less on the System in terms of food, you need to change your gastronomic tastes and preferences. It’s not always easy to do this, this is a certain mental and spiritual work, but making such changes is real and necessary, for this realize those advantages, which you get with these changes:

1. Independence or, let's say, less dependence on the System;
2. You always have food, you are freed from the conscious or subconscious fear of being hungry;
3. You can work less for the System and the toilet, and devote the freed up time to spiritual self-knowledge and development;
4. Improving the quality of nutrition (wild plants contain more nutrients than selective and fertilized ones when grown for sale in stores and markets);
5. Improved health (due to the refusal of store and market “food”, artificial industrial products and consumption of higher quality plants, more saturated with nutrients and without fertilizers);
6. After restructuring the body, some cleansing of it and getting used to eating plants, to get a feeling of fullness it will be enough to eat much less food than before.

Now let's move on directly to eating wild plants.

Greens as a complete nutrition
- what is protein
- amino acids and green plants
- why do we eat food?
- lack of energy
- removal of waste and toxins
- reducing food intake and increasing energy
- how to eat green plants raw
- why is there no food in supermarkets at all?
- green smoothies - detailed guide
- what greens to use
- amaranth, quinoa, dandelion in detail
- and other very interesting topics...

Since ancient times, people have eaten wild plants along with cultivated plants. In early spring, their fresh greens supplied him with vitamins; in summer and autumn, in lean years, they replaced bread; often quenched thirst instead of drinks. Various parts of plants were used raw, and also prepared for future use - dried, salted, fermented, pickled. They were added as aromatic, spicy substances that significantly improved the taste of food, facilitating its absorption and long-term storage.

Many wild perennial herbs, trees and shrubs found on the territory of our country contain a whole range of biologically active substances necessary for the normal functioning of the body, and, above all, easily digestible carbohydrates, vitamins, mineral salts, as well as organic acids. Some representatives of wild flora are even richer in these compounds than cultivated plants our fields, gardens and vegetable gardens.

Wild plants are used to make salads, vinaigrettes, soups, borscht, okroshka, prepare porridges, seasonings for meat and fish dishes, bake pancakes and pancakes with them, and brew tea with them.

Collecting wild edible plants, which can be carried out from early spring to late autumn and even in winter, is a real opportunity to diversify and decorate our table at any time of the year, taste qualities food, enrich it with vitamins, microelements and other beneficial substances.

In order not to fade the beauty of our fields and forests, in order to preserve reserves of plant materials for future generations, it is unacceptable to carry out harvesting in the same places from year to year. When collecting young leaves, shoots, buds and opening buds, do not pull out roots, rhizomes and bulbs. Leaves, especially young ones, should not be picked at the ends of the shoots. The underground parts of the plants are harvested after the seeds have ripened and fallen off, leaving some of them for the restoration of the thickets.

You cannot start collecting without knowing exactly the appearance of the plant, what part and in what phase of its development can be harvested, since some edible plants are similar to their poisonous relatives.

It should also be remembered that a person’s sensitivity to them is strictly individual - their inclusion in food may be accompanied by allergic reactions.

It is also necessary to remember. That for some diseases, wild plants can only be used in a limited form.

And now briefly about the most common wild plants:

Snooze
Snot is a storehouse of useful substances. Its greens contain: vitamins A, C, proteins, sugars - glucose, fructose, fiber, essential oil, coumarins, flavonoids, malic and citric organic acids, micro and macroelements - magnesium, potassium, manganese, iron, boron, copper, titanium . The youngest shoots are collected for food when the leaf is still light green, shiny and unopened - it is crunchy and does not yet have a specific taste. Snyti greens are good for cabbage soup - they put it instead of cabbage. You just need to cook the squash a little - it’s too tender. Also with “weed” they make okroshka: kvass or yogurt, green onions, dill, cucumber - and a little mustard for spiciness. In the simplest way The preparation of snyti is to dry the young leaves, grind them, sift them through a sieve and use the powder in winter as a seasoning during cooking.

Burdock
Burdock, not only useful and treatment plant, but also edible. In Siberia and the Caucasus, burdock has long been considered vegetable plant. And in Japan it is grown in garden beds, and there it is called “dodo”. The roots and leaves are eaten. But burdock roots are especially popular in nutrition. They are consumed baked and fried; boiled and pickled in China and Japan are considered a delicacy. Burdock roots taste like potatoes and can replace them in soups and borscht; they are readily eaten raw - they are juicy, sweet and very pleasant to the taste. From the dried and ground roots, flour is obtained, from which delicious cakes are baked and cutlets are fried. If the roots are crushed, dried and fried, you will get a good coffee substitute, and if you add sorrel or vinegar, you can make a delicious jam and serve it with tea. Salads and soups are prepared from young leaves.

Quinoa
From peeled quinoa seeds you can prepare a nutritious porridge that tastes like buckwheat. Or bake pancakes, make mashed potatoes, flatbreads, casseroles, or make scrambled eggs. Salads, cabbage soup, and dressings are prepared from young leaves. Quinoa is very healthy and nutritious. Quinoa is pickled, fermented, dried, and added to soups. Our ancestors used quinoa not only in times of famine. Quinoa cleanses the body of toxins, thanks to the high content of fiber and pectins in the plant, which, like a sponge, absorb toxins, excess salts and waste from the intestines. Quinoa also helps with constipation associated with our traditional bread and carbohydrate diet.

Nettle
One of the most famous plants, which is probably familiar to everyone. Who among you in childhood did not accidentally run into nettle thickets, did not get burned, and did not remember since then what this plant looks like? But did you know that nettles are very often eaten? Salads, purees, cabbage soup are usually made from it, and young leaves are used in salads. By the way, nettles contain a lot of protein, not inferior to the amount of protein in legumes. Which is why it is sometimes called plant-based meat. Remember that you need to cook it for at least 5-6 minutes so that the formic acid contained in nettle hairs is completely destroyed. If you want to make a nettle salad, soak this plant in boiling water for a while.

Fireweed or Ivan-tea
The roots and leaves of the plant are eaten. The roots are used to make flour from which cakes are baked. The leaves can be used in salad and cabbage soup. Well, traditionally in tea.

woodlouse
The entire aboveground part of the woodlice is edible. Per 100 g of weight it contains up to 115 mg of vitamin C, up to 23 mg of carotene (vitamin A), 44 mg of vitamin E, a lot of potassium and chlorine. Tender woodlice greens are used to prepare salads, borscht, soups, purees, fillings for pies and dumplings. When boiled, it is eaten like spinach, with butter. You can make carotene paste from greens.

Sorrel (horse and common)
Everyone knows ordinary sorrel - many people grow it in the garden or make a vegetable garden on the balcony, add it to salads or cook sorrel soup. It looks exactly the same in the wild. It usually grows in sunny meadows - look for it in the grass. Horse sorrel has leaves and inflorescences of a similar shape, but it is an order of magnitude larger in size - the plant reaches a meter in height. U horse sorrel tougher and not as tasty, but also quite edible leaves.

Dandelion
All parts of this plant are edible. The roots can be used to make flour. The roots can be brewed as a “coffee” drink. Salads and dressings are prepared from young leaves. Desserts made from flowers. Making jam.

Plantain
Plantain leaves are added to salads, tea, drinks, soups and seasonings. Unlike other herbs, this plant does not have a laxative effect on the stomach. In Yakutia, plantain seeds are stored for the winter, fermented with milk, and used as a seasoning. Young leaves boil well, and by adding a small amount of sorrel to them, you can prepare a delicious soup.

Dry soup dressing from plantain leaves: wash young leaves, dry lightly in air, then continue drying first at room temperature in the shade and then in the oven. Grind in a mortar, sift through a sieve, store in glass jars. Use for seasoning soups and cabbage soup.

Fern
They say that even the ancient Slavs ate ferns. Only two species are suitable for food - bracken and ostrich. Young shoots are suitable. They can be collected in early May within just a few days. These shoots are boiled for 10 minutes. The water is drained. And then you can cook them at your discretion. Pickle, make salads, fry, etc. They taste like mushrooms.

Wheatgrass
This plant is known to many as a weed. But not many people know about its healing properties. The roots of the plant can be used for food.

Flour and wheatgrass:
Dig up underground branching white wheatgrass rhizomes in early spring, Rinse cold water, air dry. Grind to remove brown scales, grind into flour or cereal. In the old days they made bread and porridge from such flour.

Hazel (hazelnut)
Hazel leaves can be used for cabbage rolls and salads. And nuts are used to make vegan nut milk.

Don't forget that the leaves and roots of this plant are considered poisonous, but its stem is safe to eat. How to eat rhubarb: choose the most large leaves, tear it off along with the stem and clear it of the top layer. The remaining pulp is tender, juicy and tasty.

Wild rhubarb
This plant is also often grown in the garden. Sweet and sour jam is made from it and jelly with a specific taste is made. True, rhubarb grows more in mountainous areas; it can be found in the Altai Territory, the Sayan Mountains, Mongolia, Siberia, the Pamirs - in general, on a mountain hike.

Arrowhead
This plant can be found in the forest in many parts of our country, in the Urals and the Caucasus, in the Crimea and Far East, in Siberia and in the central zone of Russia. It grows near the shores of lakes and rivers.

In autumn, tuberous formations develop at the ends of arrowhead shoots, which are usually eaten. They can be boiled, baked and even eaten raw, in which case they taste like nuts, boiled - like chestnuts, and baked - like potatoes we are used to. Arrowhead rhizomes can also be eaten.

Cane
Another plant that grows near the shores of lakes and other bodies of water and will grow up to 1.5 meters in height. It can also be found in water meadows, salt marshes, swamps and near close-lying groundwater. The most nutritious is the fleshy rhizome of this plant. It can also be eaten raw, fried, baked and boiled. The taste of the reed rhizomes is sweetish and very tender. You can also roast, dry and grind the cane roots to create a coffee substitute.

Broadleaf cattail
This plant also loves water, but it grows on the banks of rivers and lakes, as well as in water meadows. Distinctive feature, by which you can easily recognize this plant - dark brown velvety inflorescences, white and fluffy inside. It also grows in our forests in central Russia. Both rhizomes and young stems of cattail can be consumed in food. The rhizomes are usually baked, although they can also be eaten boiled. You can also make flour from them, and from it you can bake pancakes, pancakes and buns. If you find young shoots, they are usually boiled for some time in lightly salted water, and then pickled for the winter.

The list of edible wild plants is not limited to this; in the countries of the former USSR there are over 1000 species of plants that can be used for food.

At the same time, when collecting wild plants, it is necessary to very clearly distinguish edible plants from poisonous ones. If you don't know whether a plant is edible or not, it's best not to use it. In particular, due to the danger of confusing different types of umbelliferae, beginners should not collect wild umbelliferae, although there are also edible ones among them (for example, angelica).

Plants that birds and animals eat are generally safe to eat. However, it is rare to find plants in which all parts are edible. Most of them have only one or a few parts suitable for eating or quenching thirst.

Checking unfamiliar plants for edibility

Whenever testing a new plant for food, follow the procedure below. Do not shorten it under any circumstances.

Testing should be carried out in full. If you are in doubt at any stage of testing any plant, do not eat it.

ATTENTION! EVERYTHING WRITTEN BELOW DOES NOT APPLY TO MUSHROOMS, BECAUSE A SIMILAR TEST WITH, FOR EXAMPLE, A PALID GREBE WILL END IN FATALITY.

Inspection. Try to identify the plant.

Make sure it is not covered in mucus or eaten away by worms. Avoid old, wilted plants.

Smell. Mash a small piece of the plant with your fingers. If it smells like bitter almonds or peach, throw it away.

Skin irritation. Squeeze a little juice or lightly rub the plant on an area of ​​the body with more delicate skin (for example, the inside of the forearm).

If you feel a burning sensation, notice a rash or swelling, this will indicate that this plant not suitable for human consumption.

Lips, mouth, tongue. If irritation did not occur at the previous stage, proceed to the next stage, taking 15-second pauses between each test to determine the body’s reaction:

Place a small piece of the plant on your lips;
- place a small piece in the corner of your mouth;
- place a small piece on the tip of your tongue;
- place a small piece under your tongue;
- chew a small piece.

In all cases, if you feel unpleasant sensations, such as sore throat, irritation or burning, do not eat the tested plant.

Trying a new (previously unknown to you) plant. Swallow a small amount of the plant and observe how you feel for 5 hours. Do not eat or drink anything else during this time. 5 hours is a long time, but it’s reliable and you definitely won’t get poisoned by eating an unknown plant! In other words, if you have not eaten the plant you are researching before and cannot find edible plants known to you nearby, do a test!

Food. In the absence of unpleasant sensations, for example, burning in the mouth, repeated belching, nausea, pain in the stomach or intestines, the plant can be considered edible and eaten.

If you experience stomach pain, drink as much hot water as possible; Don't eat anything until the pain goes away. If the pain is very severe, induce vomiting by putting two fingers in your mouth and pressing on the small tongue.

If you are in the wild, a piece of charcoal ingested will also cause vomiting and at the same time absorb the poison. White wood ash, mixed with water to a dough-like state, will relieve stomach pain.

Of the variety of edible plants, we can roughly distinguish several main groups, taking as a basis the qualifications those parts of the plant that are eaten. These groups of plant foods include: vegetables, tubers and roots; cereals and herbs; fruits, fruits, berries and seeds; nuts and acorns; mushrooms and lichens; seaweed.

Here is a list of wild plants that are close to vegetables in their taste and nutritional qualities:
water chestnut (water chestnut, chilim), round sorrel, taro, common sorrel, nettle, shepherd's purse, or bagwort, rhubarb, dandelion, capers, sorrel or oxysirium, felt burdock, peony or marin root, saffron, cattail, water lily or white lily , susak, reed, southern dracaena, chastukha, cassava, wild onion, wild tulip, pennywort, angelica or angelica, viviparous knotweed, clytonia aculata, locust or curly lily, katrana, yam, mong-ngya, reed, burdock, chicory.

Cereals and herbs:
bamboo, hogweed, clover, purslane, fern, bracken, baobab, pistia, spreading shieldweed, moringa, wild chicory, arctic willow, lotus, melon tree, prickly pear, gourd, lophophora williams, wild pumpkin or luffa pumpkin, wild desert pumpkin, saxifrage spica, spoon grass, Nardosmia cold, lyre-shaped cross, arrow-shaped cross, snakeroot, tansy, Icelandic moss, rocky lichen, cactus, plantain, manna, goosefoot, primrose, primrose, sedge, shepherd's purse, coltsfoot, mullein.

Fruits, fruits, berries and seeds:
wild capers, breadfruit, sisygus, blueberries, mulberries, wild grapes, wild apple tree, marmalade aigle, wild fig, pandanus, cloudberry, lingonberry, blueberry, swamp cranberry, crowberry or crowberry, actinidia, Chinese lemongrass, Amur grapes, deshoy, shchim, dock, zoy, mam-shoy, mango, banana, guava, dai- hai, chocolate or coconut tree, juniper, sweet potato, sea quinoa, carob, rice, four winged.

Nuts and acorns:
manchurian nut, date palm, caju or cashew, chilim, Walnut, hazelnuts (lambard nut), European chestnut, almonds, acorns, beech nuts, Pine nuts, tropical almond, coconut, wild pistachio nut, western cashew nut.

Edible young leaves:
plantain, black currant, rose hips, small-leaved linden, large burdock, dandelion, meadow clover, common gooseberry, coltsfoot, spring primrose, wildflower, rhubarb.

Edible roots eaten raw:
fireweed, lake reed, calamus, burnet, six-petalled meadowsweet, large burdock, creeping wheatgrass, lungwort.

Edible leaves and young shoots:
blackberries, chicory, fireweed, sorrel, cumin, white jasmine.

Edible roots consumed as flour:
dandelion, lake reed, snake knotweed, viviparous knotweed, tuber grass, marsh marigold, sea corm, yellow egg capsule, white water lily, cinquefoil, creeping wheatgrass, broad-leaved cattail, umbrella susak, burnet.

Recipe for using edible root flour: cut, dry, grind, make dough, bake. You can add root flour to grain flour.

You can ferment flour: add regular bread or crackers, soak it and put it in a warm place until bubbles and a sour smell appear. The water lily flour needs to be soaked for several hours, changing the water. A good porridge is brewed from the crushed rhizome of lake reed.

Methods for storing edible leaves:
1. dry;
2. ferment like cabbage (for example, young dandelion leaves);
3. Make sour-salty puree (add vinegar and salt) and store in the cold.

Coffee can be made from roasted and ground burdock roots (first year of life), dandelion, and chicory. Eating a lot of sorrel is harmful: oxalic acid converts blood calcium into an insoluble compound.

Herbal tea is a source of vitamins and other beneficial substances

Suitable for tea:

1) flowers and leaves: St. John's wort, strawberry, raspberry, lady's mantle, meadowsweet, cumin, white damselfish;
2) leaves: nettle, plantain, currant, fireweed, coltsfoot, lungwort, primrose;
3) fruits: lingonberry, rowan, black elderberry;
4) flowers, leaves, fruits: rose hips, hawthorn.

More full list herbs used for tea: St. John's wort, oregano, chamomile, chicory, mint, yarrow, linden, hawthorn, nettle, rose hip, sweet clover, fireweed, thyme, chaga, golden root, strawberry leaf, currant leaf, cherry branches, barberry leaves , wheatgrass root, apple leaves, ragosa root, blueberry leaves, susak root, blackberry leaves, rose flowers, meadowsweet leaves, acacia flowers, lemon balm, meadowsweet flowers, etc.

Seeds of plants used for porridge:

field mustard, bristle grass, canary grass, chicken millet, spreading boron, pearl barley, wild barley, weedy millet, grate grass, wild rice, sandy oats, yellow acacia, plantain and others.

So, for eating wild plants you can use different ways, you can prepare: salads, soups, vinaigrettes, borscht, okroshka, porridge, use as filling for pies, stew, boil, salt, ferment, pickle, make seasonings, bake pancakes, pancakes with them, brew tea, and also make green smoothies .

Read it online here.

And another list of books on wild edible plants:

Ivanova, Putintseva “Forest Pantry”
- Koshcheev “Wild-growing edible plants”
- Berson "Wild Edible Plants"
- Keller "Wild Edible Plants"
- Verzilin “In the footsteps of Robinson”
- Tsyplev “Extreme Cooking”

• Remember that it is better to change your diet gradually, so that the body has time to readjust, so that the intestinal microflora has time to rebuild and change, on the condition of which the health of our body largely depends.
• We highly recommend consistently and gradually giving up eating meat (any kind), eggs and dairy products. These products are very harmful and cost you not only money to buy them, time to prepare them, but also your Health. More details about this in the lecture “ERIDATED LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH” by world-renowned MD Michael Gregor. This video is a powerful blow to deep-rooted and erroneous views on the usual “balanced” diet, which recommends consuming meat, milk and other animal “products.” In this valuable lecture, Michael Greger talks and shows the results of the largest long-term research in the field of nutrition. Having gone through the list of the 15 most important causes of death in the World, the doctor shows a very definite connection between fatal diseases and the consumption of “food” of animal origin. It has been proven through many experiments what stunning results can be achieved by switching to an exclusively plant-based diet.
• You should also avoid eating artificial, industrially produced foods. The reason, we think, should be clear: our body cannot be adapted to qualitatively digest and process artificially created products and substances (which do not exist in nature initially) and do this for a long time (life or most of life) without receiving negative consequences and causing illnesses in the body. Our bodies are not created or designed to cram such a large volume of artificial products stuffed with chemicals into them.
• It is very important to stop consuming regular bread. And even if it is homemade, without yeast, with homemade sourdough, this still does not make the bread completely healthy. Why regular bread is harmful, read the article “Bread that is killing us”
• To depend less on the System, you need to consume less, have fewer attachments, strings connecting you to the System and by which the System can tug you and motivate you to act as it needs. The word “less” fully refers to the amount of food a person consumes. In modern society, we are accustomed to the fact that the refrigerator and table should be full of food, we should eat 3 times a day and to the full and preferably high-calorie food - this is considered the norm, although our body does not think so. In fact, it is not good for our health. It is quite normal and even beneficial for the human body to take some breaks in eating and consume small amounts of food. The main thing is that the food is of high quality, nutritious, and natural. Think for yourself, in the absence of industrial artificial production of food, people ate seasonal products, and there was not such a volume of food; sometimes a person could go hungry for 1-2 days due to circumstances. And only in the 20th century, when, thanks to new technologies and the development of industry, people began to eat regularly and a lot, mass diseases of diabetes, cancer, obesity, cardiovascular and other diseases appeared. Studies have shown that reducing the amount of food by 30% of the usual leads to significant improvements in health and increased life expectancy in animals. Many centenarians also have a fairly modest amount of food consumed. Russian porridge
  
  

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Wild edible plants. Dish recipes

Finding food is a primeval form of travel. Even if the search area is only a couple of blocks of urban or suburban parkland, such an activity may appear to be something primitive, something pre-linguistic that lies in the immemorial times of early humanity.
I first started learning about edible plants when I was seven or eight years old. Over thirty years of research, I came to a striking conclusion:
* no matter how harsh the conditions may seem, you can always find something to chew, something you can get hold of if you know what and where to look.
* Foraging for wild foods can give you the ability to see, feel, hear, and understand details of an area, such as directions and slopes, that you may not have noticed before.
My main criterion for selecting the following wild plants was their availability and growth directly in urban and suburban areas. When collecting food supplies, do not forget to correctly identify plants, for which use special guides and reference books, and do not eat more than you need. But mostly, if you are not lost, when looking for wild edible plants, just enjoy the walk.
1. Reeds 2. Acorns 3. Plantain 4. Conifers 5. Sumac 6. Juniper berries 7. Wild mint 8. Wild onions 9. Fennel 10. Clover 11. Arrow leaf 12. Chives 13. Victory onions, wild garlic 14. Chicory 15. Sorrel 16. Susak 17. Thistle 18. Oxalis 19. Dandelion 20. Burdock (burdock) 21. Cinquefoil 22. Fireweed (fireweed) 23. Cattail 24. Quinoa 25. Calamus 26. Borage (comfrey) 27. Nettle dioecious

1. Reed
A teacher once told me that if you find yourself in a survival situation and find reeds, you will never go hungry. It has a few edible parts that I've never tried but have heard are delicious, such as pollen, which can be used as a flour substitute. I tried cattail root, which can be cooked like potatoes. And it's really tasty.
2. Acorns
Acorns are edible and highly nutritious, but they require pre-cooking (leaching) before cooking to remove tannic acid, which makes acorns bitter. To leach, you need to cook them for 15 minutes, thus softening the shell. Once cooled, cut them in half and scoop out the pulp. Collect this pulp in a saucepan, add water, salt and cook again for 10 minutes. Drain the water and cook again, repeating the process 1-2 times. In the end, you will be left with sweet acorn pulp. Salt to taste.

3. Plantain
Plantain is good example of how “weeds” can often be full of edible parts that you wouldn’t even realize. Found in the most unsightly areas, such as overgrown lawns, roadsides, and sometimes growing out of sidewalk cracks, plantain is easily identified by its recognizable stems. The outer leaves of plantain are tough and need to be cooked so that they are not too bitter, but the inner shoots are tender and can be eaten straight raw.
Almost all types of plantain are similar to each other, and it grows in almost all regions. It looks quite simple, the rosette consists of dark green leaves, oval, ovoid or lanceolate in shape. Plantain is used not only in folk medicine, but also as food. Young plantain leaves have a salty taste. In cooking, they are sometimes even added to jars of pickles.
4. Conifers
Perhaps the most accessible of all edible plants, the needles of pine and most conifers can provide vitamin C, which can be chewed or brewed into a tea. Young shoots (usually lighter green) are more tender and less bitter.

5. Sumac
Sumac is a bushy tree with spirally arranged, odd-pinnate leaves. Remember that there is poison sumac that you should stay away from, but it can be easily identified by the white fruits instead of the red fruits of regular sumac. We prepared delicious lemonade from sumac fruits: boil water, add the fruits, let it brew and cool, then strain through cheesecloth. Then add sugar and ice.
6. Juniper berries
Juniper is a small coniferous tree and shrub. There are dozens of species of it found all over the world in their native habitat, and it is also used as ornamental plant. Juniper needles range from soft to hard and prickly. When ripe, the berries turn from green to green-gray in color, eventually ripening to deep of blue color. More of a spice than an actual food, juniper berries can be chewed and spit out the seeds. Their medicinal properties are still being studied by science as a medicine to treat diabetes.

7. Wild mint
There are dozens of species of the genus Mentha, native throughout the world. Defining mint is a good introduction to the study of plant structure, as all mint species have a clearly recognizable square (as opposed to the usual round) stem shape. Take the leaves and fresh stems, brew and get a wonderful aromatic tea.
8. Wild onions
Wild onions are easily identified by their smell and hollow, rounded stems (just like regular onions). Look for it in fields and grassy areas where the grass is frequently mowed. In winter you can find it in sunny places on open areas land. Onions are very delicate, some of their types taste closer to garlic, others - to chives. It can be harvested and used for food, but it's still worth looking closely at what you pick to make sure you don't pick up anything that even remotely resembles an onion.

9. Fennel
I found fennel or wild dill everywhere I went. Take a pinch of the shoots and smell. If it instantly smells like licorice, it's fennel. The shoots can be chewed raw, and the seeds can be collected and used as a spice.
10. Clover
Clover grows almost everywhere. All parts of the plant - flowers, stems, seeds and leaves - are edible. As is the case with most green plants, young shoots are the most tender and pleasant to the taste.
Roast pork with clover
Boil until half cooked, and then fry the pork meat (200 g), stew clover leaves (400 g) with fat (20 g) in a small amount of water, add salt and pepper, season with hot sauce and serve as a side dish for the fried meat.
***
11. Common arrowhead
A plant up to 1 m high with a triangular stem, shortened rhizome and tubers. The pointed leaves look like arrows. Purple-white flowers are collected in racemes. Blooms all summer. Arrowhead tubers contain starch, proteins, fats, tannins, and organic acids.
Rhizomes and tubers are used for food in raw, boiled and baked form. After drying, they are ground or pounded to obtain flour, from which porridge is cooked, pancakes, flatbreads and pancakes are baked, and jelly, jellies, and creams are prepared.
Tubers are harvested all summer. They are cleaned, washed, cut into pieces or slices and dried.

Recipe. Arrowhead tuber porridge
200 g arrowhead tubers, 1 glass of milk, 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, salt. Boil fresh arrowhead tubers in salted water for 5 minutes, peel, and pass through a meat grinder. Add 1 glass of milk, sugar to the resulting puree and cook until the desired consistency.

12. Common moth
A plant with a tubular stem covered with short hairs, 60-100 cm high. The ovoid leaves are trifoliate. White flowers are collected in multi-rayed complex umbrellas. Green leaves contain vitamin C and trace elements.
They are used to prepare spicy salads, and also instead of cabbage in soups, okroshkas, and botvins. The leaves are boiled. Served with butter and onions. After passing them through a meat grinder, they make caviar. The petioles are pickled. Dried mushrooms are used to prepare powders for sauces and seasonings. Young leaves and stems are collected in spring and summer.
Recipe. Snitch stewed with potatoes
100 g fresh honey, 100 g potatoes, 15 g onions, dill, 15 g tomato sauce, 15 g sour cream, salt to taste. Chop the leaves and shoots of the sourdough, add salt and simmer until half cooked, combine with stewed potatoes and onions, add sour cream, simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Season with tomato sauce.

13. Victory onion, wild garlic
A plant with a straight stem 20-50 cm high and two wide oval or lanceolate leaves with a garlicky odor. Small whitish-green flowers are collected in a spherical umbrella. Blooms in June-July. Contains vitamin C, organic acids, essential oils, mineral salts and other beneficial compounds.
Leaves and stems are used for food in raw, salted, pickled and pickled form. Fresh wild garlic is used to make soups, salads, vinaigrettes, fillings for pies, minced meat for dumplings, and seasonings for meat, fish and vegetable dishes. Collected in early spring, as soon as the snow melts.
To prepare for future use, wild garlic is dried by cutting the leaves into pieces 1 cm long, and the bulbs into 4 parts or circles.
Recipe. Filling for pies
500 g wild garlic, 100 g rice, 2 eggs, fat, salt, pepper to taste. Boil the rice, add chopped wild garlic leaves. Chop the boiled eggs, combine with rice and wild garlic, add fat, salt, spices, and a little water to get a filling with a delicate consistency.

14. Common chicory
A plant with an erect, rough stem, 30 to 120 cm high. The flowers are bluish-blue with a white corolla. The root is long, spindle-shaped, brown. Blooms in early summer.
Young leaves, stems and shoots are eaten. They are used to prepare salads with apples, red peppers, green peas, salted and fresh cabbage. Served stewed with egg, fried potatoes, grated cheese, and baked in dough.
The roots contain sugar and extractives. They are used as a coffee substitute. Leaves, stems and shoots are collected during the flowering period, roots - in the fall. They are washed, cut into pieces, slightly dried and dried in a frying pan until they begin to crumble. Powdered roots dissolve well in water and are a good substitute for coffee.
Recipe. Chicory salad
200 g of young chicory shoots, 10 g of margarine, salt to taste. Wash the chicory, cut into pieces 2-3 cm long, simmer with margarine for 20 minutes. Cool and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.

15. Sour sorrel
A plant with a short branched root and a grooved stem 30-100 cm high. The leaves are arrow-shaped, alternate, juicy, and sour in taste. Small greenish-brown flowers are collected in a panicle. Blooms in spring. The leaves contain vitamin C, oxalic acid salts, and nitrogenous substances.
They are used both raw and for preparing cabbage soup, soups, green borscht, seasonings for meat dishes, fillings for pies and dumplings. Leaves and stems after pre-withering can be salted, fermented, or candied.
Collect before flowering begins. It should be remembered that with increased gastric secretion, sorrel can be used in limited quantities. In addition, oxalic acid reduces the body's absorption of calcium and some other minerals.
Recipe. Sorrel casserole
1.5 kg sorrel, 3 tbsp. spoons grated cheese, 50 g butter, 1 teaspoon wheat flour, 6 slices of white bread, 2 tbsp. spoons of ghee, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of crushed crackers, salt to taste. Wash and boil the sorrel. Drain the water and pass the sorrel through a meat grinder. Add fried onions, flour, 1 cup of sorrel decoction, milk or meat broth. Place on the stove and, stirring continuously, bring to readiness. Add grated cheese and butter to the resulting puree. Place slices of fried bread on the bottom of the mold, sorrel on top, sprinkle with breadcrumbs mixed with cheese, and place in the oven. Make sure that the sorrel does not boil, but only browns.
Sorrel sauce
Heat the chopped sorrel in a saucepan and rub through a sieve. Separately, fry the flour in oil, dilute it with broth or water and combine with the prepared sorrel. Add sugar, sour cream and boil. The sauce can be poured over meat and fish dishes.

16. Umbrella susak
A plant with a bare rounded stem up to 1.5 m high. Long lanceolate leaves in the lower part of the stem are triangular, higher - flat. Numerous white and pink flowers are arranged like an umbrella. Blooms in June-July.
Grows along the banks of rivers, ponds, lakes. Tubers on the roots contain up to 60% starch. They are used instead of boiled, fried and baked potatoes, as a side dish for meat, fish and vegetable dishes, and are also prepared as a coffee substitute and cereal for porridges.
Tubers are harvested in late summer or autumn. They are washed, cut into slices and dried.
Recipe. Susak puree
200g susak roots, 50g onions, 50g sorrel, salt and pepper to taste. Boil the washed roots for 15-20 minutes, pass through a meat grinder, add chopped sorrel, sautéed onions, salt, pepper and cook until tender. Serve as a separate dish or as a condiment for fried meat.

17. Sow thistle
A plant with a branched stem up to 1 m high. Lower leaves large, matte, jagged at the edges. Yellow flowers collected in baskets. Blooms from July to September.
You need to be quite careful with thistle leaves, as with dandelion leaves, to avoid getting bitter juice into your mouth. The yellow flowers of this plant are similar to dandelion flowers, but sow thistle is tastier, although it is prepared in the same way as dandelion. Thistle has a straight stem and looks like a thistle.
Young leaves and stems are used to make salads, soups and cabbage soup. To remove bitterness, they are soaked in salt water for 25-30 minutes. The roots are also used. Boiled they resemble Jerusalem artichoke - an earthen pear.
Young leaves and shoots are collected during the flowering period, roots - in the fall.
Recipe. Green cabbage soup
200 g of young leaves. 120 g potatoes, 60 g onions, 30 g wheat flour, 20 g butter, 2 eggs, 30 g sour cream. Boil the potatoes, 10 minutes before they are ready, add sow thistle, sautéed onions and flour, salt and pepper. Before serving, add slices of boiled egg and season with sour cream.

18. Oxalis
A plant with a creeping thin rhizome, trifoliate light green leaves and small white or pinkish flowers. Blooms in spring. The leaves contain vitamin C, oxalic and other organic acids.
Oxalis has a pleasant refreshing taste with a slight sourness. As a rule, oxalis flowers are yellow, but sometimes you can find pinkish ones. It's worth eating the stem because the flowers and leaves are quite bitter. This plant can be found not only in meadows and fields, but also in the wild. Oxalis contains high level oxalic acid, which is quite edible, but in large quantities can lead to digestive and stomach upset.
Used instead of sorrel. Prepare a sour drink. good thirst quencher.
Prepared as a puree, pickled or candied sorrel is well preserved in refrigerators and cellars. Use with the same restrictions as sorrel.
Recipe. Oxalis drink
200 g sorrel, 1 liter of water. Pass the sorrel through a meat grinder, pour in cold boiled water and leave for 2 hours.

19. Dandelion
Perennial herbaceous plant with a thick vertical root and leaves collected in a basal rosette. The flowers are bright yellow in the form of baskets. Blooms in April-May. The leaves contain vitamins C and E, carotene, easily digestible phosphorus salts, carbohydrates and other beneficial substances.
Almost the entire plant is used for food. Young leaves are used to make salads and seasonings for meat and fish dishes, cook soups and cabbage soup, older ones are used as spinach.
To remove bitterness, they are soaked in salt water for 20-30 minutes. Flower buds marinate and season solyankas, vinaigrettes, and game dishes. A coffee substitute is prepared from roasted roots.
The roots are harvested in autumn or spring (April). They are cleaned of the remains of aerial parts, washed in cold water, wither for several days in the air and dry in warm, ventilated areas, spread out in a thin layer on paper or fabric. Young dandelion leaves are known in folk medicine as a mild diuretic and choleretic agent.
Recipe. Dandelion salad
100 g dandelion leaves, 50 g green onions, 25 g parsley, 15 g vegetable oil, salt, vinegar, pepper, dill to taste, 1 egg. Soak dandelion leaves in salt water for 30 minutes, then chop. Combine chopped parsley and green onions with dandelion, season with oil, salt, vinegar, mix and sprinkle dill on top, garnish with a boiled egg.
Dandelion green salad
Young leaves, collected in early spring, are thoroughly washed, chopped with a knife, salted, sprinkled with pepper, and seasoned with a mixture of rasta. oil and vinegar and serve after 20-30 minutes.
Travel salad
Prepared from dandelion leaves, nettles and fireweed. Dandelion leaves are poured with boiling water for 1 minute, nettles are ground with salt with a pestle, and fireweed leaves are cut into small pieces with a knife. Then all the ingredients are mixed, added to taste and seasoned with vegetable oil.
Spring dietary salad
Wash equal parts of dandelion, coltsfoot, watercress and sorrel, scald with boiling water, chop with a knife, mix with chopped tomatoes (you can do without them), season with a mixture of kefir (3 tablespoons), sugar (2 tablespoons) ), chopped onion (1 tbsp) and dill (1 tbsp). Lightly salt and stir.

20. Cobwebby burdock (burdock)
A perennial herbaceous plant with a thick vertical root, a branched ribbed stem up to 1.5 m high and wide, rough, ovate-shaped leaves. Tubular flowers with a lilac-purple corolla are collected in spherical baskets. Blooms in July-August. Young leaves and stems contain vitamin C, essential oils and tannins.
Used for preparing salads, vinaigrettes, borscht, soups, broths, botvinia. The roots, containing the polysaccharide inulin, protein and other beneficial substances, are consumed raw, baked or fried as a potato substitute.
Leaves and stems are collected in early spring before flowering, roots - in autumn. They are cleaned, washed in cold water, peeled and cut into pieces.
Recipe. Burdock leaf soup
300 g burdock leaves, 80 g onions, 40 g rice, 40 g fat, 200 g potatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Boil peeled, chopped potatoes and rice until tender. Add chopped burdock leaves and sautéed onions to the soup 10-15 minutes before serving.

21. Potentilla goose
A perennial herbaceous plant with long thin creeping stems, feathery leaves, bare above, covered with white hairs below, and tuberous roots. The flowers are small, light yellow. Blooms from May to autumn. Young leaves contain vitamin C, carbohydrates, tannins, and essential oils.
Used for preparing salads and soups, in the form of puree as a seasoning for fish, meat and cereal dishes. The starch-rich roots are boiled and fried instead of potatoes.
Dried roots are used to make flour for flatbreads, pancakes and pancakes. Young leaves are collected during the flowering period, roots - in the fall. They are cleaned, washed, dried in ovens.
Recipe. Green cabbage soup
150 g of cinquefoil leaves, 50 g of sorrel, 5 g of carrots, 5 g of parsley, 20 g of onions, 15 g of green onions, 5 g of wheat flour, 10 g of butter, 0.5 eggs, 15 g of sour cream, Bay leaf, salt, pepper to taste. Boil the cinquefoil leaves in water for 3 minutes, place in a sieve, pass through a meat grinder and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Finely chopped carrots, parsley, and onions. Place cinquefoil, sautéed vegetables, green onions into boiling water and cook for 20-25 minutes. 10 minutes before readiness, add bay leaf, pepper, cloves, sorrel, season with sour cream.

22. Ivan-tea narrow-leaved (fireweed)
A perennial herbaceous plant with a smooth stem up to 1.5 m high and lanceolate dark green leaves. Large lilac-red or purple flowers are collected in long racemes. Blooms in the second half of summer. Young leaves, shoots and rhizomes contain vitamin C, tannins and mucous substances. Salads and soups are prepared from them.
Fresh roots are consumed raw and cooked instead of asparagus and cabbage. Leaves and unopened buds are brewed instead of tea. The roots are dried, ground into flour, from which milk and sweet porridges are prepared, bread, pancakes, and flat cakes are baked. Roasted roots are used as a coffee substitute.
Ivan-tea is beautiful purple flower on a high stalk, whose seed pods are pleasant to the taste, especially young ones that have not yet opened (located in the upper part of the flower) and have a delicate honey aroma. Young shoots are also edible.
The roots are collected in the fall, washed with cold water and, spread out in a thin layer, dried in the air or in well-ventilated areas.
Recipe. Green cabbage soup
100 g fresh fireweed, 100 g nettle, 100 g sorrel, 200 g potatoes, 10 g carrots, 40 g onions, 20 g margarine, 0.5 eggs, 20 g sour cream, salt, spices to taste. Immerse the greens in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, place on a sieve, chop and simmer. Sauté chopped carrots and onions. Place potatoes in boiling water, add herbs and cook until tender. Add salt and spices 10 minutes before the end of cooking. Place the egg and sour cream on plates when serving.

23. Broadleaf cattail
A plant with a thick cylindrical stem up to 2 m high. Long bluish or gray-green leaves are located at the base of the stem. The flowers are collected in black-brown velvety inflorescences. Blooms in summer.
Young shoots are served to the table, seasoned with vinegar and other spices, and also pickled or dried. Rhizomes containing starch, sugar and proteins are also used.
They are boiled and stewed. To obtain flour, cattail roots are peeled, washed, cut into pieces and dried in an oven until they become brittle. Then they are ground on a grater and sifted through a sieve. Milk porridges, jelly are cooked from the resulting grains, flat cakes and pancakes are baked. Roasted rhizomes replace natural coffee.
Young shoots and rhizomes are collected in early summer.
Recipes. Cattail rhizomes stewed with potatoes
200 g of young cattail rhizomes and shoots, 150 g of potatoes, 5 g of dill, spices to taste. Wash the rhizomes and shoots, cut into 2-3 cm pieces, boil in salted water, drain the water, combine the cattail with potatoes, add salt and fry until tender. Add dill before serving.
Cattail salad
Wash the cattail shoots that have not yet come out of the water (5-10 cm long), cut into pieces 3-5 cm long, boil in salted water, and drain the water. Grind the sorrel in a meat grinder, add salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar, mix and combine with boiled cattail. Product consumption: young cattail shoots - 150 g, sorrel - 30 g, vegetable oil - 10 g, salt, vinegar, pepper to taste.
Cattail soup
Wash the rhizomes and shoots of cattail thoroughly, cut into pieces 3 cm long, soak in vinegar, mince, and cook until tender. Add sautéed onions and carrots and bring to a boil. Before serving, top with sour cream.
Product consumption: cattail - 150 g, carrots - 10 g, onions - 15 g, fat - 5 g, sour cream - 20 g, broth or water - 350 g, salt, pepper to taste.
Cattail rhizomes stewed with potatoes
Wash the rhizomes and shoots of cattail thoroughly, cut into pieces 3-5 cm long, boil in salted water, drain the water, combine the cattail with potatoes, cut into cubes, add fat, salt and fry until tender. Add dill before serving.
Product consumption: young rhizomes and shoots of cattail 200 g, potatoes 150 g, fat 10 g, dill 5 g, spices to taste.
Cattail puree
Grind cattail shoots and rhizomes in a meat grinder, add horseradish, salt, vinegar, mix and leave in the refrigerator for a day.
Use the puree as a seasoning for main meat and fish dishes.

24. Quinoa
Quinoa contains a lot of protein, almost as much as mushrooms, as well as vitamins and mineral salts. Garden quinoa is equal in nutritional value to spinach leaves. Quinoa leaves are added to soups, bread, dried, salted, pickled, prepared into purees, salads, boiled, seasoned with butter, like pasta. Cutlets are prepared from finely chopped leaves mixed with oatmeal, boiled and rolled in breadcrumbs.
Quinoa cutlets
Ingredients: quinoa - 165 g, oatmeal - 25 g, crackers - 10 g, salt, spices.
Place finely chopped quinoa and oatmeal in boiling salted water and cook the porridge until tender. Cool, form into cutlets, and fry.
Quinoa soup
Ingredients: quinoa (young leaves) - 100 g, sorrel - 30 g, green onions - 20 g, cucumbers - 40 g, dill - 5 g, sour cream - 20 g, water - 285 g, salt.
Place chopped quinoa and sorrel in boiling salted water, cook until tender, and cool. Before serving, add chopped green onions, diced fresh cucumbers, sprinkle with dill, and season with sour cream.
Red Cabbage and Quinoa Salad
Ingredients: red cabbage - 65 g, quinoa - 30 g, sour cream - 10 g, salt.
Quinoa is thoroughly washed and finely chopped, add shredded red cabbage, season with sour cream, salt to taste.
Eggs with mustard and quinoa
Ingredients: 2 eggs (boiled), quinoa leaves 15 g, beets (boiled) 40 g, mayonnaise 15 g, table mustard 4 g. Peeled boiled beets are grated on a fine grater, mixed with finely chopped quinoa greens and table mustard is added, mayonnaise, mix again. Boiled eggs cut into two halves are placed on a plate, and beets with quinoa and mayonnaise and mustard are placed next to them in a heap.

25. Air
The taste of Calamus rhizome is bitter-burning, tart, spicy; The smell is strong, pleasantly spicy.
Apple compote with calamus
2 tbsp. spoons of dry or 1 glass of fresh calamus roots, 300 g of fresh or 100 g of dried apples, 6 tablespoons of sugar.
Boil the apples in 1 liter of water until tender, add calamus roots, bring to a boil, let stand for 5-10 minutes. Then add granulated sugar and bring to a boil again. You can place the roots in a gauze bag, which you remove before serving the compote.
Sugar syrup with calamus
500 g granulated sugar, 1 liter of water, 20 g dry calamus roots, 2 g citric acid.
Dry calamus roots pour 0.5 liters of boiling water and leave to infuse for 1 day. Strain through a sieve and add citric acid to the infusion.
Dissolve granulated sugar in hot water and connect with calamus. Pour the resulting syrup into a bottle and use it to flavor sweet dishes and confectionery. In a cool place, the syrup can be stored for a year.
Calamus jam
1 cup of dry calamus roots, 3 liters of light sugar syrup, 3 cups of apples, cut into slices (or plums, cherry plums, quinces). Pour calamus roots into boiling sugar syrup, cook for 5-10 minutes, add apples (or plums, cherry plums, quinces) and cook until tender.
Calamus decoction
20 g calamus roots, 1 liter of water. Pour crushed calamus roots into boiling water, bring to a boil, remove from heat and leave for 1 day to infuse.
Use the decoction to flavor baked goods, first courses and salads.
Kvass with calamus
Add freshly prepared calamus decoction to the kvass prepared in the usual way at the rate of 1 glass per 3 liters of kvass.
Candied calamus roots
Place fresh calamus roots, prepared in the same way as for drying, into thick sugar syrup and cook for 5-10 minutes. Remove from syrup and spread out to dry.
After the syrup has hardened and dried, place the roots in glass or earthenware jars for storage. Serve with tea and as a delicacy for dessert. If desired, candied calamus roots can be used as a filling for pies, sandwiches and other dishes.

26. Borage (comfrey)
A plant with a branched stem up to 10 cm high. The leaves are ovate-oblong, serrated at the edges, with a pleasant taste and smell of fresh cucumbers. Blooms in June-July. Leaves and shoots contain vitamins C and A, fatty acids, essential oils, and resinous substances.
Used instead of cucumbers. The roots collected in the fall are used for fragrances, wines, beer, and various tinctures. Young leaves and stems are harvested during the flowering period and dried in the sun or in well-ventilated areas.
Recipe. Cucumber and sweet pepper salad
50 g borage leaves, 50 g canned pepper, 50 g sauerkraut, 5-7 g vegetable oil. Grind everything, mix, season with oil.

27. Stinging nettle
A perennial herbaceous plant with a straight tetrahedral stem up to 1 m high and lanceolate, large-toothed leaves covered with stinging hairs. Blooms in June-July. Nettle leaves contain vitamin C, A, carotene, mineral salts and organic acids and are not inferior in nutritional value to beans, peas and other legumes.
Used for preparing salads, soups, cabbage soup, botvinia, sauces and purees. Young tender inflorescences are brewed instead of tea. Leaves and stems are collected from early spring to early summer. Dry the raw materials in attics or under a canopy with good ventilation, spreading them out in a thin layer.
Nettle balls
100 g nettle, 200 g millet porridge, 20 g fat, salt to taste. Before cooking, scald the nettles, chop them, then boil them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, put them in a sieve, chop them, mix them with thick millet porridge, form into balls and bake in the mold. (Recipe from me) Cook a light broth from millet and potatoes, add washed nettles, cook for another 10 minutes. At the end it is poured into the pan a raw egg and mixes. Be sure to serve with sour cream. And one more piece of advice. Add a little nettle when preparing fish soup.
Nettle salad
Chop the washed young nettle leaves with a knife, combine with green or onions, lightly crush with a wooden pestle, add salt, season with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil, you can add a boiled egg or meat.
Nettle, dandelion and carrot salad
Washed nettle greens and dandelion leaves, soaked in a saline solution for 20 minutes, are finely chopped with a knife, salted, poured with vinegar, mixed with grated carrots and seasoned with vegetable oil or sour cream, or, in extreme cases, kefir or yogurt.
Nettle and sauerkraut salad
Nettle leaves, soaked for 1-2 minutes in boiling water, are coarsely chopped, mixed with sauerkraut, poured with cabbage brine, 2-3 tablespoons per serving, and seasoned with vegetable oil. You can add slices of meat to this salad.
Nettle salad with quinoa
Two handfuls of nettles, 1 handful of quinoa leaves, 2 cloves of garlic, cut with a knife and lightly crushed. Sprinkle with chopped eggs and green onions. Season with sour cream or vegetable oil.
Nettle puree with vegetable oil
Boil washed nettle leaves (1 kg) in salted water, drain in a colander, chop with a knife into cutting board, sprinkle with flour (1 tablespoon), add 2-4 tablespoons of nettle broth, stir and cook again for 10 minutes, stirring continuously. Then add grated horseradish, fried onion vegetable oil, mix and serve hot as a seasoning for flour and fish dishes.
Fish appetizer with nettles
Poach the fish in a small amount of water, place on a plate and add 2-3 tablespoons of nettle puree.
Nettle balls
Boil 100 g of nettles in salted water for 2-3 minutes, place on a sieve and chop with a knife. Mix with thick millet porridge and bake in the oven or on the stove. For 100 g of nettle, take 200-300 g of porridge and 20 g of fat.
Dagestan dumplings made from nettles
Dough is prepared from wheat flour, salt and water heated to 35 degrees. Let it stand for swelling for 30 minutes and roll it out to a thickness of 3 mm. To prepare minced meat, nettles are washed, chopped, and fried in oil along with onions. Dumplings are boiled in salted water. Served with butter or sour cream. For 300 g of nettle, take 200 g of wheat flour, 2 eggs, 1-2 onions and 20 g of ghee.
Fish meatballs with nettles
Minced sea fish is mixed with dry nettle powder and stewed with a small amount of water and sour cream in a sealed container. Served with tomato or sour cream sauce. For 500 g of minced meat, take 1/2 cup of dry nettle powder or 150 g of fresh leaves. Meatballs can be prepared in much the same way.
Potato pancakes with nettles
Pass 1 kg of potatoes, 200 g of nettles, 50 g of onions through a meat grinder. Add flour or semolina, salt and fry it all in a frying pan.
Eggs stuffed with nettles
Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them lengthwise, remove the yolk. Fill the pits freed from the yolk with minced nettle. Cover the minced meat with sour cream or mayonnaise. To prepare minced meat, selected and washed nettles are ground in a meat grinder and mixed with grated garlic and egg yolk. Fry with butter and use for stuffing. For 100 g of nettle take 2-3 cloves of garlic, 20-30 g of butter or other fat, salt to taste.
Omelet with nettles
For 4 servings of omelet, take 4 eggs, 100-150 g of fresh nettle leaves and 1 glass of milk. The greens are finely chopped, poured with an egg-milk mixture and baked, greasing the pan with vegetable or butter. Salt to taste.
Dietary nettle cutlets with cottage cheese
Selected fresh nettle leaves are poured with boiling water for 1-2 minutes, crushed and mixed with cottage cheese. Sprinkle the cooked cutlets with semolina, dip in the beaten egg mixture, bake and serve with honey or jam. At 10 tbsp. spoons of crushed nettle take 2 tbsp. spoons of cottage cheese, 2 tbsp. spoons of semolina and 2-3 eggs, salt to taste.
Nettle filling for pies
Pour boiling water over young nettles (1 kg) for 1-2 minutes, drain in a colander, chop, mix with boiled rice or sago (100 g) and chopped boiled eggs (4-5 pcs), salt to taste.
Nettle pilaf
Pour boiling water over young nettle leaves (600 g), drain in a colander (do not pour out the broth), and chop. Sort the rice (200 g), rinse with warm and then hot water. Cut the onion (180 g) into slices and fry in fat. Add dried rice and fry it with onions and chopped nettles. Pour nettle broth into a bowl, add salt, heat to a boil, add rice with onions and nettles, cream margarine(100 g), pepper, stir, close the lid, put in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Add parsley, bay leaf, salt.
Nettle soup with potatoes and eggs
Cut and boil potatoes, carrots, parsley and other ingredients to taste. 1-2 minutes before readiness, add finely chopped young nettle leaves. Serve with sour cream or kefir and egg.
Soup from oatmeal with nettle
Boil 1/2 cup oatmeal and 1-2 sliced ​​potatoes until tender. Add fresh nettle leaves chopped with a knife, 2 tbsp. spoons of sour cream, salt to taste and bring to a boil. Served hot.
Diet puree soup
Crush peeled potatoes, boiled in salted water and dilute with milk, add a decoction of oatmeal and dry nettle powder, add salt. Bring to a boil and serve with croutons. For 4 servings take 4 glasses of milk, 4 glasses of oatmeal decoction, 4 tbsp. spoons of dry nettle powder and 4 medium-sized potato tubers. To prepare the decoction: pour 1 cup of oatmeal with 5 cups of water, leave overnight, then boil for 15 minutes over low heat. Strain through a sieve and then use for making soups.
Nettle, sorrel and lungwort soup
In meat broth, cook 1-2 diced potato tubers until tender, add nettles, lungwort, sorrel and green onions, chopped with a knife, and salt. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Before serving, season with sour cream and boiled egg.
Pickled nettle
Nettle is very difficult to ferment, so it is fermented with the addition of vinegar; It’s good to add a little sauerkraut to it when fermenting nettles.
Nettle in marinade
Young leaves and shoots of nettle are chopped with a knife, poured with marinade, boiled for 6-10 minutes, placed in glass jars and tightly closed with lids. Store in a cool place. Used as a seasoning for first and second courses.

Wild edible herbs are a natural and valuable source of nutrients. Many plants have healing properties and are used in cosmetology and medicine. It is also a piquant, unusual taste.

If you have only eaten greens from the garden, then after reading this article you will have an idea of ​​what field plants you can eat them, how to prepare them and store them.

Why are wild herbs healthier than store-bought salads?

It's no secret that wild plants are much healthier - the fact is that they are better able to receive everything they need for growth from nature. They have naturally longer roots. Not spoiled by regular watering, fertilizing the soil and artificial lighting. On the contrary, domestic plants, as a result of many years of selection and cultivation, have lost the ability to produce and preserve many valuable substances.

The lack of nitrates in wild plants, their ability to regenerate themselves through the sap, is what makes herbs an attractive addition to our diet.

What wild herbs can you eat?

You can eat not only greens, but also plant flowers. Here is a partial list of edible greens:

• Bird's knotweed (knotweed, goose grass, ant grass);
• Goose foot. Suitable for food whole;
• Angelica;
• Chickweed (woodlouse);
• Ivan-tea - sweet rhizomes;
• Reeds - peel young shoots, they are sweet and juicy;
• Clover - young leaves are very tender and good in salads;
• Nettle - everyone has heard about the benefits of nettle; young shoots are very useful;

• Quinoa;
• Burdock;
• Mantle - leaves and young shoots are edible;
• Lungwort - blue-lilac leaves - an excellent honey plant. In England, it is grown in the garden, using peeled stems and root leaves for food;
• Dandelion - leaves are soaked in water and added to green smoothies or salads;
• Shepherd's purse (purse or field buckwheat). Leaves are eaten: only young ones, unaffected by fungus, absolutely healthy;
• Plantain - The young leaves can be widely eaten. When combined with sorrel, the taste becomes more pleasant;
• Wheatgrass - the roots are eaten raw;
• Droop - you can eat young leaves. In Russia there are 5 types of dream, this herb has a wide range of beneficial effects;
• Yarrow;
• Horsetail.

Edible flowers: nasturtium, red clover, marigolds (marigolds), chrysanthemums.

Berry leaves: leaves of strawberries, wild strawberries, currants.

Tops of plants: carrots, kohlrabi cabbage, beets, radishes.

How to cook dishes from wild herbs

• Collect wild plants only outside the city, away from roads.
• It is advisable to eat the collected greens on the same day. You can keep it fresh if you wrap it in a wet cloth or plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator.
• All wilted greens can be given a fresh look by soaking them in water before eating.
• In salads, it is good to sprinkle greens with any sour juice, this improves the absorption of nutrients.
• Wild herbs taste better in salads with the addition of sour cream or curdled milk.
• Green salads are not salted. It spoils them appearance, taste and destroys beneficial substances.
• Before adding bitter leaves to salads, pour cold water with the addition of a small amount of salt for 30 minutes.
• It is better to scald greens with boiling water, this way they are better absorbed and become tastier.