Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Common Purslane along with all the Common Purslane containing recipes presented on this site, with 7 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Common Purslane as a major wild food ingredient.

Common Purslane, Portulaca oleracea, (also known as Verdolaga, Pigweed, Little Hogweed, Green Purslane and Pusley), is an annual succulent in the Portulacaceae (purslane) family. It is a native of India and the Middle East, but is naturalised elsewhere and in some regions is considered an invasive weed. It has smooth, reddish, mostly prostrate stems and alternate leaves clustered at stem joints and ends. The yellow flowers have five regular parts and are up to 6 mm wide and first appear in late spring and continue into mid autumn.

Common Purslane can be eaten as a leaf vegetable and a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe and Asia. It can be used fresh as a salad, or cooked like spinach, and because of its mucilaginous quality it is also suitable for soups and stews. Australian Aborigines used to use the seeds to make seed-cakes. It is widely used in Greece where there are several cultivars that are specifically grown as potherbs (the most well known of these being Portulaca oleracea sativa).

The young leaves can be added to salads. The leaves are mucilaginous and the finely-chopped leaves can be used as a very acceptable substitute to okra for thickening soups and stews. Older leaves should be prepared as a potherb. The leaves are slightly sour in taste and have a spicy and salty flavour; they are also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids.

As well as being used fresh the leaves can also be dried for later use. The seeds are edible and can be dried and ground to a powder for mixing with cereals, adulterating wheat flour or being prepared into a porridge or gruel. Added to flour it improves the food quality of breads, pancakes, etc. The seeds are very fiddly to harvest and are easiest obtained by uprooting seedling plants where the flowers have finished and arranging in a pile on sheets or cloth. In a few days the seeds are shed and can be collected on the sheet.

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms
[12]. Bunker, F.; Brodie, J.A.; Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants