Wild Food Recipes for Winter

All the recipes listed are tried, tested and recommended! Please note that identification of wild foods is key to going on to using them as foods, so please attend a walk or event before picking and using. If you're not 100% sure, then leave it!

Winter Chicken Soup with Wild Chervil and Three-Cornered Leek

I love using seasonal veg and herbs, and this is a lovely addition to a hearty soup. I'll say no more, the classics speak for themselves I reckon...

Ingredients

1 chicken carcass

A handful of pearl barley

1 onion

2 carrots, roughly chopped

1/2 a fresh caulilower

2 sprigs of wild chervil

A small handful of 3-cornered leek, leaves and bulbs

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper

Break the bones (as many as you can) of the chicken carcass, cover with water and bring to boil. Add the carrots, onion, pearl barley, and bay leaves and simmer for an hour and a half. Strain through a seive, and pick out the best bits of chicken to add back into the chicken stock. Discard the bones and vegetable pulp. Bring to a simmer again, and add the chopped cauliflower, roughly broken wild chervil, finely chopped 3-cornered leek and salt and pepper to taste. You can add a few cauliflower greens (the outer leaves) if you have. Simmer for 15 mins, and serve with fresh bread, and follow with apple and blackberry crumble if you have room!

Beetroot and Chickweed Salad

Sometimes, but not often, I want a fresh salad in winter, not a bought one with foreign cucumber and tomatoes, but one straight from the hedgerows. I created this one on a whim, based on the local root veg and the wild greens I had available. It's a lovely warming addition to bread and cheese, and goes down well during the festive season of feasting.

Ingredients

1 very large beetroot, raw & grated

1 cm piece of ginger, grated

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 dessertspoon of mustard

1 dessertspoon of local honey

2 tablespoons of cider vinegar

1 large handful of chickweed, washed & loosely cut

Salt and pepper to taste

Add the beetroot, ginger, onion and chickweed into a large salad bowl. Mix the mustard, honey, vinegar and salt and pepper together. Pout over the salad and serve immediately.

Bread and Blackberry Pudding

This is a great twist to a blackberry dessert, and a fruitful way to use up frozen berries from earlier on in the year. The elderberry syrup makes it sticky and luxurious, and good for colds. In theory this recipe can be done outside, over an open fire, though so far I've only ever done it inside, in a warm kitchen. (Adapted from The Wild Gourmets by Grieve and Miers).

Ingredients

8-9 slices of white bread (crusts removed)

2 free-range eggs (whisked)

450ml milk

2 1/2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

125g soft brown sugar

100g blackberries

100ml elderberry syrup (bought or made)

Double cream to serve (optional)

Heat the milk with spices till it quivers (do not let it boil), stir in the eggs, 2 tablespoons of butter and 100g of the sugar. Take off the heat and soak the bread in the mixture for 10 minutes. Butter a heavy bottomed frying pan, sprinkle with a little sugar, layer half the bread in, followed by the blackberries and a final layer of bread. Pour any additional liquid over. Put a lid on the pan and cook the pudding for 20-30 minutes, checking the bottom regularly to make sure it hasn't burned. Sprinkle a little extra sugar on top, turn the pudding onto a plate, and slip back into the pan (cooked side up) for anther 20-30 minutes (covered), or until cooked. Serve hot, with elderberry syrup poured over for a decadent and comforting dessert!

Wild Food Recipes for Winter

Winter Chicken Soup with Wild Chervil and Three-Cornered Leek

Beetroot and Chickweed Salad

Bread and Blackberry Pudding

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