Purslane, Verdolaga, miracle nutrition

 Right along with Dandelions, Purslane (Spanish Verdolaga), is one of those plants that is too often disregarded, if not seen as a weed, but it is a nutrition powerhouse.

Since I have been writing about recipes with purslane, I wanted to basically post a recent article that talks about puslane.

I asked one of the Bangladeshi merchants on my street about it, why he did not sell it in his store. The answer was oh, I grow that in my yard. In other words it was too easy to sell it in the store.

Anyway here is a posting on a site called WorldCrops. It contains an album of pictures of Purslane. They have adopted the Spanish name of Verdolaga.

I find it at a Mexican store in my area.

And here is yet another article:

https://www.newsbreak.com/share/3550869690554-purslane-the-underestimated-superfood-with-maximum-health-benefits

Econo #WFPB #4 Dal with stems from various leafy greens.

 

Here is a huge bunch of Purslane (Verdolaga), and note below my potato salad with the leaves. 

Next to it, you will see the stems. I cut them up in 1 inch pieces (Verdolaga is fairly soft, and freeze them, and I will have stems from Kale and Collard greens, or Malabar Spinach, and I cut those in 1/4" pieces when I use the leaves, and save them in a ziploc bag until I am ready to make dal again. Or, alternatively I can use various odds and ends to even cook my own vegetable broth one day.

And the last image is a plate of dal, along the lines of the recipe, but including stems of purslane, kale, collard greens and even malabar spinach, but it could be any stems of leafy greens. The stems can be tougher, but when you make the dal, I cook thos stems, cut in small chunks, right along with the onions and peppers to form the base. Then when you add teh lentils and simmer it some more, those stems are pretty soft and they add a lot of depth to the flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp of panch puran
• 1 cup water with Yondu for the sauté
• 1 medium/small Onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 carrots, shredded or sliced thin
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 2-3 Thai chilis
• 1 Jalapeño
• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 cups water
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp parsley flakes or fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp salt-free chili powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp chipotle powder (or more)
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 tsp cumin, milled
• 1 tsp caraway, milled
• 1 tsp fennel, milled
• 1 piece of turmeric minced, or a tsp of turmeric powder
• 1 14.5 Oz can of diced tomato (fire roasted)
• 1 6 Oz can of salt-free tomato paste

Directions

• Set aside the tomatoes, red bell pepper.
• In a large soup pot, first roast the tablespoon of panch puran, then water sauté or dry sauté the onion, garlic, peppers until translucent, about 8-10 minutes.
• Add remaining ingredients but not the tomatoes, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium and cook until lentils are creamy, about 20 minutes.
• Blend the tomatoes, bell pepper and garlic in blender and blend until smooth. Skip this step if you like it chunky.
• a) Place all ingredients in an electric pressure cooker and cook on high for 10 minutes,
  or
  b) place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
• Garnish with finely chopped scallions and a sprinkling of Faux Parmesan (or nutritional yeast).

Notes

Optionally, you can make this with more veggies, liek beet greens, chard, and other such. In that case, I left out the tomato puree.

I also made it more spicy and aromatic than the original from chef AJ, but by including veggies, it becomes more of a dal.

Econo #WFPB #3 Fingeling potatoes with Purslane

I wrote about this simple spring salad of fingerling potatoes with purslane for the first time in 2017 (link).

As a refresher, here is the basic recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 lb fingerling potatoes
• 1 cup purslane leaves
• 3/2/1 dressing with one lemon or lime (3tbsp balsamic, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp maple syrup)
• red onion
• either 1/2 teaspoon of piment d'espelette or
• (1 heaping teaspoon of paprika powder and
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper)
• 1-2 tsp of dill
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• boil the potatoes
• cut in small chunks
• pluck the leaves off the purslane and reserve the stems for another use.
• make the salad dressing
• mix

The reason I want to write about this now in terms of kitchen economics, is that it appears not to be economical, but it all depends on a lot of circumstantial stuff. Take note of the fact that purslane is very, very nutritions, see here (https://www.verywellfit.com/purslane-nutrition-facts-4692802) : 

One cup of purslane contains:

• Calories: 8.6
• Fat: 0.2g
• Sodium: 19.4mg
• Carbohydrates: 1.5g
• Fiber: Not provided
• Sugars: Not provided
• Protein: 0.9g
• Vitamin C: 9mg
• Potassium: 212mg
• Iron: 0.9mg
• Magnesium: 29.2mg

But purslane (Spanish Verdolaga) is not usually cheap, and this recipe calls for the leaves only, so I saved the stems and used them in my next dal.

Those are the kind of little tricks that are the engine of kitchen economics, and they are fun to figure out. In my next piece I will write about the dal.