A Fantastic Foraged Green: Lambsquarters

Lambsquarters

A friend showed up for dinner last night with a bag of weeds she'd just removed from her garden. To farmers and gardeners, lambsquarters are a nuisance, an intractable weed. For the rest of us however, this is spinach with a college education, the most delicious green. If you're lucky enough to find some, here's a vaguely Korean way of cooking this wonderful weed.

Wash a big bunch of wild lambsquarters, removing the thick stems.  (I didn't weigh mine, but I'd estimate it was about three quarters of a pound.) Quickly blanch them in boiling salted water for about a minute, then run them under cold water to stop the cooking and set the color. 

Squeeze the leaves well to remove excess water.  Now do it again.  Put them into a bowl, and fluff them a bit, pulling the leaves apart and giving them some air. 

Thinly slice an entire scallion and mix it into the lambsquarters.

Put a couple of tablespoons of miso paste into a small bowl and mix in a small minced clove of garlic, a splash of soy sauce, a half teaspoon of chile paste and a splash of toasted sesame oil.  Mix into the lambsquarters.  If you want to really give it a Korean flair, toss in a small handful of sesame seeds.