Sunday, June 13, 2010

Milkweed Recipe - Crustless Milkweed Flower Quiche


Common milkweed has several different edible parts during different seasons. Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) grows in open fields and is an important food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars. It is a tall perennial herb that rarely branches, thus helping to differentiate from branching dogbane, a poisonous lookalike. The stem and leaves are covered in fine hairs seen through a magnifier, a second characteristic that can help differentiate from dogbane, which is smooth. The leaves grow in opposite pairs on short stems, and are generally 4-9 inches long ovate shaped. All parts of the plant exude a white, milky sap when broken.


In spring, the shoots can be picked until they are about 14 inches high. At this stage, most of the leaves are not unfurled or fully formed and the stem is tender enough to break off. It is very important to positively identify milkweed shoots from dogbane shoots by looking for the fine hairs on the stem. We boil the shoots for about 15 minutes, making them tender and removing the milky sap. The flavor is similar to green beans.



Later in the spring, the flower clusters will appear at the top of the plant. They look like broccoli florets, but when cooked, taste more like buttered green beans. We have picked them at a tightly clustered stage, and when the flower heads loosen up. Both were delicious when cooked for 7 minutes in boiling water. I used them in a crustless quiche recipe adapted from a recipe from Russ Cohen. I think they would also make a great soup, or addition to a pasta primavera.


The flowers bloom in summer and are sometimes pink, white, purple, or a combination of the colors. They can be boiled or steamed for 3 minutes, then dipped in batter and fried like tempura. The five petals of the flowers bend sharply backwards, and in front of each one there is a lobe pointing forward to form the showy looking part of the flower. Each plant produces several clusters of flowers, but each flower will not form a pod, only 2-5 per flower cluster will mature to a milkweed seed pod.



In late summer, the flowers will die and the pods will appear. They look like green, spiky teardrops and will eventually grow to3-5 inches long. When they are about an inch long, gather the pods and cook them whole. As they grow bigger but before they are fully grown, they can be gathered and the insides can be removed and the pod can be stuffed like a pasta shell. In a milkweed pod that is good for consumption, all of the seeds inside the pod will be completely white. The pods are best cooked and eaten soon after gathering so they do not get tough.







Crustless Milkweed Flower Quiche makes 1-9" x 9" pan, about 9 servings


5 eggs
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt and pepper
1 C. cottage cheese
2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
4 Tbsp. olive oil
8 oz. cooked milkweed flower buds



1. Heat oven to 350° and grease a 9" x 9" pan.

2. Whip eggs until frothy.

3. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the eggs are set and the top is browned.

7 comments:

  1. Aren't they bitter when they're 14 inches tall? I thought it's best to harvest when no taller than 6 inches?

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  2. 14 inches is the maximum height you might want to pick the shoots, as long as the leaves are still curled up. It depends on the season. This year, we had a cold, rainy spring and when the warm sun finally showed it's face, all the shoots were stunted short but the leaves were unfurled. Me missed the shoots completely this year.

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  3. That's a bummer. They've started to unfurl here too but new shoots are still coming up as well.
    But I've also read that you can safely eat new leaves, I would assume that would also mean the unfurled leaves on young shoots. Anyways, I hope you'll have more favorable weather for milkweed shoots next year.

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  4. Can you please share on how to prepare the flower buds for this recipe?

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  5. I pick the unopened milkweed flower buds, then I bring them home and wash them. I then give the clusters a quick 2-3 minute boil which removes the oozy milky characteristics. At this stage they look like little bunches of broccoli. I then chop the bunches coarsely for this particular recipe. I hope you are identifying th correct plant--no branching on the stalk, slight hairs on the stem, milky sap. The flowers usually have a bit of pink in them, all white flowers I would avoid.

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  6. Yes, that is what we found here. Thanks.

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  7. One other thing. I did not coarsely chop the buds. Will do that next time.

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