Eating weeds: Purslane trumps pizza

For once, I am out of words. The middle owl-cat (7) proclaimed in a fit of passion that he prefers this dinner to pizza.

Michael Pollan tipped me off to the culinary potential of this unassuming weed that is full of vitamins and omega-3s. We tried it a while ago in a salad, but it is a bit hard to eat raw after weeding it out of the vegetable patch for years. It may be a bit like someone telling you, "Go ahead, add raw chicken to your salad. It's actually a real cancer fighter!" It's just hard to get past some things.

But after I tried out this recipe for verdolagas last week, we had to have it again this week. It's that good.

I hate to replicate recipes that another hard-working food-blogger has put together and deserves credit for. I will describe the basic steps, so you get an idea of what it is. Then you can go to the source for the recipe. It's brilliant.

Of course, you could always substitute spinach for the purslane, but how fun would that be?

Verdolagas (see link for full recipe; my recommendations in italics):

1. Make a simple green tomatillo salsa in the blender.
2. Boil 2 diced potatoes in salted water (suggested, but not used in the original)
3. Wash and chop the purslane (stems and all).
4. Boil the purslane. Add a little lemon or lime juice to the water in an attempt to preserve the color of the bright green leaves.
5. Heat oil in a pan. Toss in some garlic. Add the green salsa.
6. Drain purslane and add it to the green salsa.
7. Drain potatoes and add it to the green salsa and purslane.
8. Heat a cast iron pan. Heat corn tortillas on the cast iron until there are brown specks on one side. I make a quesadilla with a corn tortilla, split it open and proceed with step 9. The owl-cats like cheddar. I like feta in mine. 
9. Fill tortillas and roll up like a taquito. Or fill with other veggies and eat like a taco.
10. Be prepared for compliments.