What Can I Cook with Lamb's Quarters? Good Questions

Q: My husband and I just got a generous bunch of lamb's quarters from our CSA. I had never heard of it before we got it in our box, but a quick Google search tells me that it's an edible weed that resembles spinach and other leafy greens.

While I do have some recipes for spinach I could try with lamb's quarters as a substitute, I'm a little nervous about experimenting with it. I've just started using greens in my cooking, so I don't really have a lot of experience cooking spinach or any other greens.

Do you have any experience working with lamb's quarters? If so, any good recipes or tips for cooking with it?

Sent by Laura

Editor: Laura, check out our spotlight on lamb's quarters; one reader mentions sautéing it. We think that a quick sauté with a little garlic and oil is a good way to start tasting this green.

• Seasonal Spotlight: Lamb's Quarter

Readers, what are your favorite ways to cook lamb's quarter?

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(Image: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (11)

Five bucks a pound for something I rip out of my garden by the handfulls????

Don't knock something til you've tried it. Most food items probably started off as something most people wouldn't eat.

I love spinach salads, how about trying a salad with lambsquarter. It would be the quickest and easiest way to experiment with an unknown type of leafy green.

Lambs Quarters are nice in Salads - maybe toss with some arugala?

Laura,

Here is what I do every time I encounter a new green, to figure out how to use it. First I take a nosh of it uncooked, then I saute a bit and taste it, and then I boil a bit and taste it.

That way I have an idea of what it will taste like in the likeliest ways I would use it - salad, sauted, or in a soup.

While going online or to cookbooks is good to see how it is commonly used, I think tasting it in those situations first is essential - just because everyone else says its great sauteed doesn't mean you'll like it that way, so an advance taste will tell you that. Plus, once you have the flavor in your head it makes it easier to improvise.

It's great in pesto! Here's a recipe:

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/diaryofafoodie/2007/01/lambs_quarter_pesto

I got some last week (not for $5) and I made: An egg and cheese sandwich with sauteed lambs quarter mixed in with the scrambled eggs with part of my bunch and then I made risotto with sauteed summer squash and lambs quarter later in the week!

Rick Bayless has an amazing recipe for soft taco filling made with chicken, roasted poblanos, and sauteed greens - the recipe specifically calls for lambs quarters. I could eat this every night for dinner.
http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=228

I like it cooked slowly with tomatoes (and garlic etc.). its texture after it's cooked down is unlike that of other greens--very meaty, almost like shredded chicken, which i guess might sound gross, but it's the opposite. you can have it over pasta or as a side dish, or whatever seems appealing.

I totally agree with TwoWheeler and I love eating lamb's quarters! All I do is allow it to grow (i.e. not weed it out) amongst my other greens. I do still have to weed it out of other areas and there's enough to both eat and compost.

Love it in this old-ish Kitchn recipe:
Anelletti Pasta with Sausage and Greens (thanks to Faith...it's a favorite quick dinner, it's only from last year but I make it so often it seems like it was a long time ago.)

I use it all the time in anything that would normally have spinach, especially egg and cheese dishes like quiche, omlette etc. It's also good raw. I cook the stems as well as the leaves, and recently added it to veggie burgers. Nutritionally, it has loads of vitamins and it's free if you have a veg. garden. In England it's known as "fat hen", and many people eat it all the time.

I've had a lovely cream of lamb's quarters soup. I don't have a recipe, but I'm sure that any cream of spinach soup recipe could be easily converted.