Can you eat a noxious weed? Chipilin for Dinner!

Maybe they won't notice if I sneak a lemon!

One thing I love about shopping the international markets (besides getting lots of great, often local, produce for less than a third of what I’d pay at Whole Foods), is the opportunity to browse for new and interesting vegetables and fruits. I’m always a little adventurous, which gets me into trouble in cases like the tuna fruit, which, after a week of gastrointestinal distress and a visit to the doc, I now know I am allergic to (put it on the list along with seedless, but not heirloom watermelon)! But, is very rewarding in the case of one of my new favorite vegetables: Chipilin.

Chipilin is common in Mexican and Salvadorian cuisine, but is classified as a noxious weed here in the states. (It is actually outlawed in Australia.)The first time I saw it, I had to touch it. It is a beautiful shade of green and just looks like it tastes good. I asked a big, handsome, Spanish-speaking guy in biker clothes how it was usually cooked. He said it was great cooked in eggs. So, my first taste of this little green gem was in a scramble. Mr. Grocery Store Shopper was right, it tastes great in eggs. I’ve since done a little poking around and have found that the most traditional uses seem to be in tamales, pupusas, or soups. I do make my own pupusas, so I will have to try it out one of these days!

Chipilin and some sweet red peppers, in the raw.

It’s actual taste is somewhere between that of sour clover (which may only make sense for those of you lucky enough to have grown up where I did) and spinach. In traditional recipes, it is never eaten raw. In the interest of satisfying my curiosity, I did taste a raw sprig, and it was nice, but the flavor is greatly enhanced with heat, so I’ll stick to cooking it.

The growing season is not as long here as it is in the countries where chipilin is valued as food, rather than detested as a weed. So, it’s not always in stock at the store. I’m pretty sure I found some growing on the side of the road in my neighborhood, but without knowing the details on different varieties of the plant (not to mention the fact that it is probably well watered by the local dog walkers), I was hesitant to give the curbside plants a go. However, after weeks mourning it’s absence in the produce section, Brian picked up a large bunch of the “noxious weed” two days ago and I planned tonight’s dinner around it.

Chipilin cooking.

We had a simple supper. I seasoned London Broil with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and traditional fermented soy sauce, cooked under a broiler until done.* But, the feature of dinner was the chipilin, which I sautéed in butter, with a few cloves of fresh garlic and two sweet red peppers. It was fragrant, and beautiful, with a hint of the exotic. I made the perfect accompaniment: garlic and herb cream cheese, made by chopping two clove of fresh garlic, mashing them into my homemade cream cheese, and seasoning with dried mint (because I was out of fresh) and celtic sea salt.

Wait! I can't forget the garlic herb cream cheese! Hold on while I get it!

All in all, it was another successful dinner at home.

Sarah

*Cook’s Note: There is no shortcut I can give as far as timing “done” when it comes to cooking meat. It depends on the thickness of the cut for one thing. It also depends on preference. You just have to check it and watch it and know if you want it rare, medium, or cooked through. Some people can tell if it's done by touch, but this takes practice.

Credit Where Credit is Due: Some of my basic knowledge about chipilin came from http://www.worldcrops.org/crops/Chipilin.cfm.