24 Easy to Recognize Edible Plants.

Did you know that some wild plants are edible?

Whether they grow in your garden, on the edges of a path or in the forest, these plants have been around since the dawn of time.

And they can very well end up on our plates.

It is also necessary to know how to recognize them and to know their usefulness and their properties.

Our grandmothers knew them well, they used them to eat them but also to heal themselves.

24 easy-to-recognize plants

I took a course organized by a professional during which she taught me to recognize the flowers that are eaten.

Before you start too, I strongly recommend that you also take a course like this to learn about edible wild plants.

I therefore propose here a summary of this learning with 24 easy-to-recognize edible plants around the house. Look :

1. Nettles

Wild nettles in a field that can be cooked in many ways

It is arguably the best known of all edible wild plants and very easy to recognize.

It must be said that it is familiar to us since it has rubbed shoulders with man for millennia.

The role of nettle is to clean the floors. It is therefore better to observe the place where it grows because it is as comfortable in a landfill as in a garden, next to the compost heap.

Nettle is rich in calcium, iron and vitamin C. To benefit from it, you can eat the buds or the leaves.

The easiest way is to cook them with potatoes, in a pie, a quiche, or any other such dish. But you can also make nettle butter.

To do this, cut the leaves, wash them and let them dry. Then, brown them in melted butter.

Let cool and add small pieces of butter. Salt, mix until it becomes a paste. And there you have it, your nettle butter is ready!

You can also try this delicious nettle pesto recipe.

And if you dry the leaves, you can also make nettle tea.

To discover : The 6 Benefits of Nettle For Your Body.

2. The plantain

Plantain flowers in a field that can be eaten in a salad

The plantain blooms from May until October.

This plant can be eaten in a salad, spiced up with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and thyme olive oil.

This plant, like many others, contributes to biodiversity because birds appreciate it a lot! They feast on its seeds.

One of its assets is to be able to relieve stings of nettles, just like sorrel and mallow.

This is very practical because they are often found near nettles.

3. The clover

clover is an edible plant

Everyone knows the clover. They are found everywhere, sometimes in abundance.

But have you ever tasted it? Well, know that this plant can very well be eaten in salads.

Clover is perfect to accompany a slice of quiche, a pie or tomatoes.

Taste it and I assure you that you will love it!

4. The daisy

a daisy in a field

The pretty daisy is full of calcium.

If you have the courage to go and pick it one by one in the garden, this perennial plant gives pep to your salads by giving them a touch of cheerful color.

But beware, daisies grow just about anywhere ... including where pesticides and toxic products are spread.

In this case, they are not edible. It is therefore necessary to take care to pick them in clean spaces, without pesticides, such as gardens and vegetable gardens for example.

5. The dandelion

a bee comes to forage on dandelion flowers

It is a great classic rich in vitamins and minerals. Edible dandelion blooms from March to November.

It is one of the herbs in the garden that can be eaten in many forms.

Indeed, its flowers are used to make wine or even jams.

The roots and leaves are prepared in soup, salad or infusion.

Like nettles, they can also be made into butter. Just follow the same recipe as for nettles.

6. Ground ivy

ground ivy can be mixed with salad or tabbouleh

The problem with ground ivy is that it is not easy to recognize it.

But once you identify it, you will be amazed at how delicious it tastes.

You will appreciate it as well in a salad as to flavor a tabbouleh.

If you dry it, you can make healthy herbal teas from it.

In bloom from March until fall, it is welcome in your garden as it attracts and nourishes pollinating insects.

This is the case with bumblebees which feed on its nectar.

7. The cleavers

Gaillet graton leaves are eaten in salads

You will easily recognize it because its leaves cling and stick to hands and clothes.

They have a very particular rough appearance.

Rich in vitamin C, cleavers can be eaten in a salad.

You can also add just a few leaves of this herb to spice up a green salad, for example.

8. Brambles

The buds of brambles are full of vitamins and are eaten

Brambles bloom from June until August.

Usually, we don't like them too much because they tend to invade the garden. However, they are not lacking in interest!

First of all, this is where a number of mammals such as foxes and wild boars are hiding.

Butterflies also enjoy them while birds and deer feast on them.

When the forest expands, brambles are the first to cover the ground.

Then, they are rich in tannin and vitamin C.

You can eat the buds and use the stems for basketry.

Their berries, wild blackberries, are a real treat.

You can eat them plain, as long as you only pick those that are high up.

Yes, we must not forget that some animals can urinate on brambles!

9. The ground hazelnut

a ground hazelnut tuber that can be cooked

It is called "conopod". The flowering of ground nuts takes place from May to July.

They are eaten from September until flowering in May.

To harvest it, you have to scrape the earth to remove the root.

It is the tuber that can be eaten and that has a delicious nutty taste.

You have to be very careful not to confuse it with the great hemlock.

Both are part of the same family, the Apiaceae. But the great hemlock is poisonous.

When consumed, it is at the origin of digestive disorders, dizziness, headaches, even convulsions. It is therefore necessary to avoid at all costs to ingest it.

10. Silenus

The wild silenus is eaten raw in salads or cooked

It is also called "red companion". The shoots of this perennial appear from March to May.

They can be eaten raw in salads or cooked.

When it blooms from May to September, we can also feast on its flowers which are eaten in salads.

11. Wild sorrel

wild sorrel is eaten in salad

It is a bio-indicator plant that helps to aerate too tightly packed soil.

Also called rumex, this plant flowers from May to July.

There are many recipes that use wild sorrel.

It is eaten in salads, soups or we can put it in sauces or dishes to spice them up.

12. The black elderberry

Elderflower can be cooked in a donut or in syrup.

It is also called poor man's vanilla because of its strong and identifiable smell.

When there is black elderberry, you can be sure that the soil is rich in nitrogen. This shrub blooms in early summer and its fruits appear in August.

Elderflower flowers can be used to make donuts or syrup. And the fruits are eaten in jam, jelly or syrup.

With elder flowers, you can prepare a flavored wine by following this recipe: macerate 24 umbels (well-developed flowers) in 3 liters of red or white wine, 30 0 ml of fruit alcohol, 450 g of sugar. Just put all the ingredients in a closed container and let macerate for 48 hours. Then remains to filter and bottle. Note that the older the preparation, the better it is.

Note that elderberries contain hydrocyanic acid which turns into cyanide during digestion. So you really have to eat them cooked.

The black elder is very similar to the common hièble which is smaller and does not bloom until August. But be careful, because hièble is poisonous.

13. Common hogweed

Common hogweed tastes of tangerine and goes into cakes

Like the great hemlock and the ground hazelnut, common hogweed is part of the Apiaceae.

As a reminder, the great hemlock is poisonous : it should therefore not be confused with common hogweed which blooms from June to September.

Common hogweed tastes similar to tangerine, especially when eating its stem.

You can put it in cakes, flour or use it as a flavoring for dishes.

14. The navel of venus

the leaves and flowers of the navel of Venus is eaten in a salad

That's a pretty name for a little plant full of iron, vitamins and minerals.

Its stems and flowers are eaten in salads.

By removing the film that covers the leaves and rubbing them on a small wound, it also has the power to relieve the pain of a cut.

15. Hops

Hop shoots are prepared like asparagus

Hops are found in moist areas and near brambles.

Its young shoots can be eaten and prepared like asparagus.

Note that you can harvest hops from June to September.

16. Birch

Birch sap and leaves are edible

Birch is a tree full of resources.

First of all, its sap is edible. It can be taken when the leaves of the tree start to grow.

To harvest it, all you have to do is make a hole at the base of the tree.

Once taken, drink it in the morning to purify your body.

If you like the bitter taste, you can also eat the young leaves of the birch.

To do this, dry them and then fry like crisps! I love it !

17. Wild garlic

Wild garlic is prepared in soup or pesto

It is also called "wild garlic". Be careful, wild garlic looks like lily of the valley. Not to be confused because thrush is poisonous.

To avoid confusion, be aware that wild garlic grows on wet soils and smells like garlic.

Everything is eaten in wild garlic: the flowers, the stems, the buds.

You can make a pesto or a good soup. To do this, follow our homemade recipe here.

18. Lemon balm

wild lemon balm leaves are eaten in salads or drunk as an infusion

You can enrich the flavors of a fruit salad or a green salad by adding a few leaves of lemon balm.

And by drying the leaves, you can make excellent herbal teas and prepare it as an infusion.

On the other hand, know that it is preferable to pick the lemon balm leaves before flowering so that they have even more taste.

19. Violet

wild violets edible flowers

Violets are inconspicuous but grow everywhere, in fields, forests, in the shade or in the sun.

Know that its leaves and flowers are edible.

You can taste the leaves which can be prepared like spinach.

Brown them in a little olive oil then spread them on a slice of goat cheese. Yum !

With the flowers you can make flavored sugar.

To do this, put 1 part of flowers for 4 parts of sugar in a blender. Mix then put them in a glass container which closes and let stand for 1 week.

20. The hegodode

hegopod flowers grow everywhere and can eat in salads

This plant tends to grow everywhere! So that's a good reason to eat it!

Young and tender, it goes very well with salads.

And when it is firmer, it is eaten in soups, pies or quiches.

21. The big mallow

the petals of the mallow can be prepared in a salad

It is also called sylvan mallow or woodland mallow.

Its petals will be used to decorate salads.

You can also brown them or cook them like spinach.

22. The lanceolate plantain

the leaves of the honeycomb plantain are eaten in salads

The lanceolate plantain grows every year in pastures from April to October.

Its leaves are excellent in salads.

Test it and tell me about it!

23. Burdock

burdock can be eaten raw in a salad when the shoots have just sprouted from the ground

Burdock grows in forests. The leaves of the burdock are cooked in water, which will bring out their little artichoke taste.

When they come out of the ground, the young shoots are eaten raw after having peeled them.

You can also store them in vinegar. The petioles are eaten raw or cooked. They can also be lacto-fermented.

24. Thistle

Thistle flavor the rice

It's surprising, but the thistle can also be cooked. It should be harvested in the spring and boiled in water.

Remove it from the water and collect it to cook the rice. The thistle will pleasantly scent your rice.

Conclusion

As you can see, nature is generous with us.

Our garden has a thousand gastronomic treasures to offer us.

But caution is required and in the slightest doubt, it is better to abstain!

Remember that some plants look the same and can be toxic to health.

I recommend that you read the following precautions.

Warnings and Precautions

- The buttercup is a pretty flower. But it is part of the buttercup family. It is therefore toxic. Its consumption causes digestive disorders, nausea and vomiting. Arum should not be consumed either.

- Be extra careful when picking flowers to eat them. If you have the slightest doubt, abstain because some plants are very poisonous. Consult a professional to be sure you are picking edible plants that are safe for your health.

- You can also help yourself with books that will help you recognize edible wild plants. If you want to learn more, I recommend reading these books:

- Guide to wild edible plants. Recognize them, harvest them, consume them by Stefen Guido Fleischhaueur

- Edible and poisonous wild plants by François Couplan and Éva Styner

- Edible plants: Picking and recipes of the 4 seasons by Guy Lalière

- And if you want to cook wild herbs like the great chefs, I recommend this book: Crazy for flavors from Marc Veyrat.

marc veyrat's book for cooking wild plants

Your turn...

Have you tried eating edible wild plants? Tell us in the comments if you liked it. We can't wait to hear from you!

Do you like this trick ? Share it with your friends on Facebook.

Also to discover:

Purslane, an Edible and Free Summer Plant!

63 Essential Medicinal Plants For Healing.


$config[zx-auto] not found$config[zx-overlay] not found