By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
First of all, before I start hounding you about lambsquarters for the third week in a row, I have to tell you that my gorgeous and brilliant granddaughter, Ariel Humble, just graduated from TCU! We are very proud of her. Yayyy Ariel!
Now, back to lambsquarters: I want to be honest with you and tell you that the reason I am still on this kick is because I couldn’t think of anything else to write about. But I promise you, this is good information.
What to do with lambsquarters
First pick you some. I am more than eager to share mine with you. Take it home, discard any tough stems, wash it. Put it in a pan with some water. You don’t really have to cover it with water, because it will cook way down. Simmer till it is tender, which won’t take long, then drain it and set aside. Chop you a bunch of onion, start sauteing it in some olive oil or coconut oil or butter, then throw the lambs quarter in there and saute it, too. Salt it and maybe add a little vinegar. Eat it with some beans and cornbread and onions. Yum yum.
Now, if you are lucky enough to have some left over, this is when it gets even better. Warm it in your microwave. With a spatula or back of spoon or fork or something squeeze the last juice out of it. It will look like a dark green blob. Take some corn tortillas, spread with a little coconut oil, and toast them just a little bit in your toaster oven. Or you can just warm them in the microwave. Then spread some of the warm lambsquarters blob stuff on the tortillas, and sprinkle with feta cheese. Roll them up and eat them up. Delicious!
If, unlike me, you are not trying to keep from being fatter, you could top a bunch of them with a creamy cheese sauce, and they would be even more wonderful, if that is possible.
My grandson Hunter Norwood is studying Hospitality Management at North Texas University. Right now he is learning to cook gourmet food, so we sometimes get the benefit of his practicing. When he and his family came by on Mother’s Day he brought me some Coconut Cardamom Rice Pudding. You wouldn’t think of rice pudding as being anything special, but this was out of this world. And it should have been. He scraped a real vanilla bean, dropped it, along with honey. a real cardamom pod and other mysterious goodies into coconut milk in which he simmered jasmine rice stirring for at least half an hour and then stirred in some golden raisins and butter. I don’t know what else he did. This is just the part his mother told me about. It was wonderful.
So I thought I would add to his culinary experience. I told him about lambsquarters. I told him it is a superfood, having more vitamins and minerals than almost any other green. And I told him I just happened to have some available. I suggested he could amaze his classmates with a gourmet dish made out of weeds. He didn’t get too excited about the prospect. But he did let me give him a taste of some of it, unseasoned. And he did declare it tasted just like spinach.
Here is a quote from a website called Prodigal Gardens: “Lambsquarters can be used in any recipe that calls for spinach. It is endlessly versatile in the kitchen and can be included in all kinds of dips, dressings, sauces, soups, salads, and main dishes. It is one of the finest spinach substitutes; no one would ever know the difference if you didn’t tell them” See—it says it on the Internet. It must be so!
Hunter has not heard the last of this. When he comes home next time, I’m going to present him with a fresh-picked batch of it, clean, with all the tough stems removed. I don’t think he can refuse his old grandmother. I’ll bet he’ll make us a lambsquarters souffle.
If he does, maybe I’ll shut up about lambsquarters. But maybe not. Seems like I’d have to tell you how good it was.