 | There's a bit of press out there about eating weeds and how healthy they are. But really, is it worth it? I am always game to try new things and have been experimenting all summer with some edible weeds. The verdict: some are a bit naah, but fat hen passes all the taste tests with flying colours. It tastes just like spinach - only it's nicer. No kidding, it really is! If there's one weed worth eating, this is it... |
Fat hen, (chenopodium album) is also known as lambs quarters, goosefoot and pig weed in some places. In fact, it's almost not a weed at all, as it's grown as a crop in India, and it's called Bathua. It's in the goosefot family, along with spinach, beets, and quinoa to which it is quite closely related. Fat hen grows on every continent. It is a warm season annual plant, and usually appears in mid to late spring in Canberra. It's pretty easy to spot and young leaves and small stems can be eaten. I've found the plant can be eaten at all ages, it's just that the leaves tend to be largest in younger plants.
View of young fat hen plant in our garden from above, showing the distinctive leaf shape and the slight white powdery quality to the youngest leaves.
In moist fertile soil, fat hen can grow to almost 2 metres tall, but will still survive in dry neglected areas of your garden. Unlike spinach, it's a reliable source of greens in hot weather (if you've tried growing spinach in a Canberra summer, you'll know what I mean, as soon as it's warm and dry, spinach bolts - it goes to seed - leaving you with hardly any leaves)
Fat hen can be used just like spinach - they take a little longer than spinach to cook, but the flavour is richer, so you might want to try just a handful of leaves until you are familiar with its taste.
We have used it in stir fries very successfully, as well as some Indian curries where it's a traditional ingredient. My favourite dish by far was a side dish as part of a Korean dinner we had (we made bibimbap - a mix of rice and various vegetable side dishes and a fried egg which is delicious!). You might want to try making the following side dish with fat hen instead of spinach one day and hopefully you will be as impressed as we were. It was really good!
Ingredients:
250 to 450 grams of fat hen (or spinach)
1 and a half tablespoons of Japanese soy sauce
1 and a half tablespoons of mirin
1 tablespoon of lightly roasted sesame seeds
Method:
Quickly boil the fat hen until tender and drain well. Add soy sauce, mirin and sesame seeds and serve.
Fat hen can be used just like spinach - they take a little longer than spinach to cook, but the flavour is richer, so you might want to try just a handful of leaves until you are familiar with its taste.
We have used it in stir fries very successfully, as well as some Indian curries where it's a traditional ingredient. My favourite dish by far was a side dish as part of a Korean dinner we had (we made bibimbap - a mix of rice and various vegetable side dishes and a fried egg which is delicious!). You might want to try making the following side dish with fat hen instead of spinach one day and hopefully you will be as impressed as we were. It was really good!
Ingredients:
250 to 450 grams of fat hen (or spinach)
1 and a half tablespoons of Japanese soy sauce
1 and a half tablespoons of mirin
1 tablespoon of lightly roasted sesame seeds
Method:
Quickly boil the fat hen until tender and drain well. Add soy sauce, mirin and sesame seeds and serve.
And guess what? It turns out you can also eat the flower heads of fat hen too. I've heard them described as like mini broccoli florets, but they are really tiny - I might call them minute broccolini!
So we gave that a go too, as per the pictures below. Result: not bad, but I think I prefer the leaves. The flavour, like all fat hen is mild with a quiet richness, but the texture was quite dry, substantial and almost meaty. Blanch first and then add soy sauce or similar.
So we gave that a go too, as per the pictures below. Result: not bad, but I think I prefer the leaves. The flavour, like all fat hen is mild with a quiet richness, but the texture was quite dry, substantial and almost meaty. Blanch first and then add soy sauce or similar.
Top left: fat hen flower head in the garden. Top right: freshly harvested fat hen florets ready for the pot. Bottom left: in the pot for blanching. Bottom right: stir frying with onion and beans.
And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, fat hen offers one final advantage. You can eat the seeds too - they are like tiny black quinoa. Each plant produces a good amount of seeds. But, here in Canberra at least, unless you can net the plant, be aware that fat hen is clearly an extremely tasty snack for local parrots. I am sad to say that what he had hoped would be a bumper crop of seeds to try out have mostly ended up in the tummies of a dazzling array of local birds. Oh well. We know for next time, and we did harvest some seeds, though not quite enough to cook with! But there's always next year - I can't wait!
Finally, a little word of caution. Fat hen, like many leafy greens, does contain oxalic acid, which is a known anti-nutrient (it binds to some minerals, including calcium I think, making it harder for you to absorb them). Cooking breaks down the oxalates, however.
Finally, a little word of caution. Fat hen, like many leafy greens, does contain oxalic acid, which is a known anti-nutrient (it binds to some minerals, including calcium I think, making it harder for you to absorb them). Cooking breaks down the oxalates, however.
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