Stuffed Milkweed Pods

One of the things I've been trying to do is utilize perennial food plants that want to grow wild on my property.  One great example of this is the common milkweed.  It produces and abundance of food through a long period of the growing season.  It's final vegetable produced is the immature pods.  I will pick them when they are about 3/4 their final size or smaller.  In this stage they are actively growing and thus still tender enough to eat.

The problem with eating uncommon food plants is that there really isn't a food culture, complete with recipes, I can use to guide me in their preparation.  This is further hampered by the fact that I'm trying to move to a whole food plant based diet where I avoid a lot of added sugar, fat, and salt.  There are even fewer recipes for this way of cooking/eating.  So on my blog I wanted to share various experiments in cooking I've tried to possibly help out others looking to do similar things.  

I just posted a new entry, A Perennial Food Experiment:  Stuffed Milkweed Pods and though I'd let you all know about it as it seems like something this crowd might be interested in.  I will admit I used a bit of salt in the stuffed pods though.  Milkweed pods just seemed like a natural thing to use for stuffing since they have a seam that wants to split open easily, with an inner white that's easy to pull out (and be used as a vegetable in it's own right) leaving an edible shell ripe for filling.  I found there was a trick to cooking the pods though in order make them tender enough.  While baking long enough in an open pan seemed to work, baking in a covered pan, thus creating a moist heat cooking method, seemed to work best.

Does anybody else have interesting recipes they use for wild foraged or unusual plant foods?

I hope you are fully aware of the toxicity of milkweed. This article briefly describes the toxicity and traditional use: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/poisonous-milkweed-humans-74425.html

Thanks for the article link Amit.

I have to admit I wonder about it though since it's talking about the bitterness of milkweed.  That's been a persistent myth likely begun by Euell Gibbons and fully discussed by Samuel Thayer in his first landmark book "A Forager's Harvest".  The thought is that Gibbons mistakenly was using the young shoots of the poisonous dogbane which can look similar at that stage.  He then developed a very complicated method of boiling to remove this bitterness, and wild food authors have been simply repeating his words ever since.  As Thayer puts it, if it's bitter spit it out, you don't have the right milkweed, or milkweed at all.  Edible milkweed isn't bitter.  It does need to be cooked though.  The species I'm using and Thayer is talking about is Asclepias syriaca.  I have to admit I have much more trust in Thayer's work, who only writes about foods he really knows, has researched and eaten many times, than I do in a news organization article.  I'm not saying the article is wrong, I just have little trust in the news these days.

What I did find interesting in the article was that it mentioned Native Americans would also utilize the boiled roots as food.  That is something Thayer never talked about and he usually surprises me with all the uses of a plant there is, even ones I thought I knew well.  I may have to look into that more as it would be quite cool to get another food out of the plant, but again I'm a bit suspicious of the news article's accuracy since they were talking about bitter milkweed.  Though perhaps the non-edible milkweeds are bitter.

I think some species of milk weed are toxic, or  “poisonous“ but the common milk weed in my region, also called showy milkweed is not poisonous. I have eaten the shoots and they are very like asparagus. Also like asparagus, you have to pick them when they are young and tender.

I never thought of eating the milkweed pods, but I will try it in coming seasons if I get a chance. As for recipes for wild harvested foods, I am not very imaginative. I just throw onion and garlic and flavorful herbs in the pan with butter and when the  aromatics are to the right point I throw in greens and sauté them and then I throw in eggs, when they’re close to done, some  grated cheese.  ZWhen the cheese is melted, it’s ready.

For variation, or if there’s not much flavor, chili oil, or fresh chilis, toasted sesame seeds, or toasted sesame oil are great!

So you're saying that, while some types of milkweed are poisonous, common milkweed isn't?  And that tender shoots and leaves (and possibly roots it sounds like, can be eaten?

This article recommends two varieties and mentions another one:

Of the many species of milkweed, I know only two I can recommend eating: Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), and Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa).

I have some friends who have eaten Asclepias exaltata (Poke Milkweed), but I can't recommend eating it as I haven't personally (besides a few flowers here and there, which are fine as a sprinkle) and I don't see it anywhere near as much as Asclepias syriaca.

https://foragerchef.com/guide-to-milkweed/

Riona Abhainn wrote:So you're saying that, while some types of milkweed are poisonous, common milkweed isn't?  And that tender shoots and leaves (and possibly roots it sounds like, can be eaten?

i don’t know about the roots, but the unopened flower buds and young tender pods (as noted by david at the beginning of the thread) are definitely edible.

Riona Abhainn wrote:So you're saying that, while some types of milkweed are poisonous, common milkweed isn't?  And that tender shoots and leaves (and possibly roots it sounds like, can be eaten?

Probably not the roots. I have Samuel Thayer's New Feild Guide and. There's no mention of the roots being edible. He says there are only four edible milkweeds.

Common milkweed, Asclepias speciosa
Green milkweed, Asclepias Viridiflora
Sand milkweed,, Asclepias adrenalin
And poke milkweed, Asclepias exaltation

Any bitter milkweed should be spit back out.