White borscht, traditionally eaten on Easter Sunday morning, is made of fermented flour sour soup base and served with eggs, sausage, and sometimes potatoes and feta cheese. Here we present a wild version of this soup. The traditional white borscht soup base is made of fermented flour (usually wheat or rye) with garlic cloves, bay leaf, and allspice. We chose oat flakes for fermentation as they give a milder flavor and wild garlic instead of garlic cloves. We replaced eggs with stinkhorn eggs and potatoes with Jerusalem artichokes.
Category: Main course
Falafels are balls made of soaked and ground chickpeas or broad beans originating from Middle Eastern cuisine. They are usually deep-fried. They can be eaten as a snack or served as part of a meal, for example on pita bread or in a wrap, with vegetables and sauce. Typically falafels are seasoned with parsley, onion, and garlic. All these plants can be replaced with wild counterparts: ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), crow garlic (Allium vineale), and wild garlic (Allium ursinum).
Stamppot is a traditional Dutch dish consisting of mashed potatoes with vegetables, usually some type of leafy greens. In this recipe, we made a wild version of stamppot using mashed Jerusalem artichokes and wild garlic leaves. A classic way to serve this dish is to form a “well” of stamppot filled with gravy in the middle and sprinkled on top with small pieces of crunchy bacon. We used wild versions of vegan bacon and gravy we described in earlier recipes.
Pom is a Surinamese casserole made from the roots of pomtajer (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) with pieces of chicken, flavored with citrus juice, celery, and stock cubes. It originates from a potato-based dish introduced by European Jews, who came to Surinam in the 17th century. Pom is typically made on special occasions such as holidays or birthdays. Perhaps, this is due to practical reasons because, with a cooking time of around two hours, it is not exactly a quick dish. Pom is most often served with white rice or on a sandwich. We made a wild and vegan adaptation of this dish
Mushroom-sauerkraut dumplings are one of the most iconic Christmas foods in Poland. They are usually eaten during Christmas Eve dinner. Dumplings’ filling is made of some type of boletus mushroom (porcini (Boletus edulis) is the most valued) and sauerkraut. The stock you get as a result of cooking the mushrooms is often used as a base for a Chrismas mushroom soup. We used the mushroom stock for a wild Jerusalem artichoke soup.
Wood ears (Auricularia auricula-judae) are mushrooms that can be found all year round, mostly when there has been a lot of rain fall. They grow on dying and dead tree part and have a preference for elder trees. Historically, in the west, they were never considered an edible mushroom however in Asia they have been eaten for centuries. In this recipes, we incorporate them in spring rolls. Spring rolls are a snack typically found in most Asian restaurants in the West. They originated from China and there are many varieties. The version we describe here is a Chinese style fried
With this recipe, we recreated a wild vegan version of a Dutch classic: the herring sandwich. The combination of fermented herring with onions and pickles dates back to the Jewish community of Amsterdam. They sold this trinity as a street food. Nowadays, you can find the herring special everywhere in the Netherlands in fish shops and at food stands as a topping for a sandwich. To give this dish a wild twist, we replaced the herring with fermented shaggy inkcap mushrooms (Coprinus comatus), the onions with crow garlic (Allium vineale) bulbs, and the pickles with quick pickled hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)
Bladder wrack Boletus Crow garlic Fall Garlic mustard Giant puffball Ground elder Main course Stinkhorn Water pepper Wild garlic
Wild Ramen with black garlic oil
Ramen can be seen as a combination of 5 elements: broth, flavoring (tare), flavored oil, noodles, and toppings (for example egg, nori, greens). Aside from the noodles, we used wild ingredients for all elements. Starting from the stock, we used bladderwrack seaweed (Fucus vesiculosus) (introduced here) and boletus mushroom. We imitated miso based tare with koji fermented puffball (Calvatia gigantea) paste (described here). For the flavored oil, we used black wild garlic (Allium ursinum) and crow garlic (Allium vineale) oil (described here). For the toppings, we used fried ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), which structure wise resembles nori, crow garlic, water
We used giant polypore (Meripilus giganteus) as a taco filling paired with water pepper (Persicaria hydropiper) spiced salsa. Both ingredients can be found in the summer and autumn. Giant polypore, also known as the blackening polypore, is as its names suggest a large mushroom with flesh that discolors black when bruised. It grows on trees or dead wood. Sometimes it can appear to be growing out of the soil while in fact there is a dead tree trunk hidden under ground. The mushroom has a chicken-like structure making it a good meat substitute. There are also no dangerous lookalikes making
The two stars of this recipe are ground elder (Aegopodium Podagraria) and Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica). Ground elder was spread around Europa by Roman soldiers. They use it as a spice. Nowadays, this plant is considered as an invasive weed. Despite being a nuisance to gardeners, ground elder has medical properties and can help treat gout and arthritis. We described Japanese knotweed here. Ground elder (Aegopodium Podagraria) leaves (left) and blooming plant (right). The inspiration for this soup was a rhubarb-carrot soup recipe. We replaced rhubarb with Japanese knotweed and carrot with ground elder. To add sweetness we used sweet potatoes and to