fat hen - a nutritious weed

Do you remember in my January Slow Living post when I mentioned that we were eating a 'weed' called Fat Hen? A nutritious weed that grows well in rich, soil especially in cooler wet weather. Since we had a late start to summer with a lot of rain in October and November, we also had a mighty good crop of Fat Hen! 

Each year we purchase trailer loads of spent mushroom compost to spread around the garden but due to the rain last year, we didn't get to spread it out for quite a while. The garden beds that the compost was piled onto, became really rich and moist and I ended up with a fantastic crop of this lush 'weed'. 

The official name is Chenopodium album and it is in fact related to quinoa. The name Fat Hen was given to it because it was used to fatten poultry. Our hens may well have put on some weight because they ate loads of Fat Hen when we weeded out the garden beds earlier in the season!  I still give them a plant every now and again and they peck every little leaf and seed until there is just the skeleton of the stalk left. 

Instead of me re-writing all of the interesting info on this plant I'll just give you a couple of interesting websites that I found while looking for botanical names.

This one mentions that Fat Hen grown in nitrogen rich soil will contain nitrates and should be consumed in moderation (which we did). It also contains oxalates, so should be cooked rather than eaten raw, although I feel that the healthy enzyme content in small quantities would make up for the oxalic acid consumption!

Garden Organic, a UK site, mentions that the seed buried in undisturbed soil can still germinate after more than 20 years! Yikes! I shall be sure to pull out any remaining plants before they seed!

On this Medicinal Herbs site, there is a good lot of info on eating and using Fat Hen as well as any known hazards.

And if you want to find out more about the history of Fat Hen and some of it's relations, check out A Modern Herbal by Mrs M Grieve.

 So when there isn't yet much in the garden and the troops are hungry, why not use a little bit of what is growing?

We often have cooked quinoa for breakfast and I usually make extra so it can be the basis for lunch or dinner too. My very quick fried rice quinoa goes something like this…….

In a large frying pan heat some coconut oil, add chopped onions, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, celery and what ever else is lying about in the fridge or is in over abundance in the garden! You can also add frozen corn niblets and peas if you have them.

Saute until softened.

Add cooked quinoa/buckwheat/rice and stir through. Season with tamari and pepper.

At the last minute add a few handfuls of clean Fat Hen leaves and shoots.

And thats that!! We have ours with a salad of some sort and sometimes omelette strips on top.

And thats two recipes in as many weeks - must be all my excitement over the food we are growing!!

I'd love to hear if you use any 'weeds' in your cooking?
And how did you learn to identify them? 

Thanks for stopping by to read my thoughts and also if you've left a comment!