Chenopodium album

Chenopodium album

Chenopodium album is commonly known as Lambsquarters, and is a very well-known edible plant.

I found my source right in my own garden, growing as one of the "weeds" that most people pull out each year. I don't aggressively pull every so-called weed from my garden, but even the relatively nice ones like this suffer as collateral damage in the war against the real enemy, grass. Nevertheless, you too may have this growing along side your spinach and collards. And after trying it, you may decide to pull the spinach and let this grow instead.

Chenopodium album has vaguely triangular-shaped leaves, usually coarsely toothed, and often with a larger lobe at the base of the leaf (hastately lobed). Smaller leaves sprout from the axils of the larger leaves, with the potential to turn into branches, so if only the larger leaves are picked, it will grow more leaves. The leaves develop a whitish powdery coating, which becomes more pronounced at it ages. It does not have showy flowers, and the seeds are small and grow in clusters at the tops of the branches. Quinoa comes from a different species of Chenopodium, and these seeds are also edible, but usually considered too small to bother with. The stems become striped with purple or red, becoming fully colored as they get older.

Most sources recommend cooking the leaves, as they may contains trace amounts of saponins, a bitter soap-like substance. The young leaves are not bitter at all when young, and its widespread excellent reputation suggests that this species has very little bitter substances in it. It is the powdery coating on the leaves that makes me want to cook it more than the worries about taste or bitterness. Three to five minutes is quite sufficient boiling time.

Anyways, the taste lives up to the hype over this plant. It has a mild, pleasant flavor, and does not seem bitter to me at all. In fact, the flavor is much better and less bitter than the spinach I can buy at the store. My plants were young and had not begun to produce seed yet, so I will need to compare with older specimens to see if that makes a difference. Also the leaves hold up to boiling well, and do not become mushy. I would say that the texture leans more towards cabbage than spinach.

Lambsquarters also taste great fried, and my wife is especially fond of them cooked this way. Just heat some oil in a pan (I used coconut oil), throw in about three handfuls of Lambsquarters, and sprinkle on a little garlic salt. If you have some stronger tasting greens, you can add a small amount of those to enhance the flavor as well. I happened to have some Bittercress (Cardamine cordifolia) and Sweetroot (Osmorhiza occidentalis), so I added a little of each of those. These are stir-fried on medium heat for 5-10 minutes. The Lambsquarters seem to turn a brighter green when they first cook. I take them off when some of the leaves start to look fried. 

In the truly wild and waste places, you may come upon other species of Chenopodium. All are similarly edible, although the taste and bitterness will vary. I believe I have found C. fremontii growing near me. (Being sure of the difference requires mature fruit and a microscope.) This was much more bitter than the plants from my garden, and although boiling greatly improved the flavor, the bitterness is still detectable. It would probably be fine when combined with some other flavors and cooked as part of a larger recipe.