Spring Greens - Wild Garlic #3

April showers, warmer weather, much rain. Wild Garlic is abundant on the edge of the forest so for our third year we have been foraging, nibbling and cooking like it's going out of fashion.

First job - a batch of Wild Garlic Pesto - made just like normal pesto but with ramsons instead of fresh basil leaves.

Since then we've made carrot and wild garlic broth with green lentils, roasted a cod loin wrapped in wild garlic with olive oil and lemon juice, constructed a splendid pizza with wild garlic pesto instead of tomato sauce and topped with enoki mushrooms, feta, goats and mozzarella cheeses. 

There's been a plethora of wild garlic and mushroom pasta sauces, various tarts loaded with goats cheeses, mushrooms, wild garlic, some pan fried potatoes with chilli flakes, onion and wild garlic.

Aubergine, spinach and wild garlic curry is in the planning stages....it's a delicious time of year!

Ramsoned by Nature

Well, it's that time of year again when the ramsons or wild garlic are in abundance in the glen. Every year we have a large patch opposite the house on the other side of the sheep field and we tend to go a bit daft, adding wild garlic to just about everything. This year is no exception. Free, delicious and bountiful - what's not to like!

Ramsons or Allium ursinum AKA wild garlic, buckrams or bear's garlic

The Bold Foragers - that's me and our Effie - headed off earlier in the week with some plastic bags for a toddle round and half an hour of gathering the delicious leaves. 

Bold Forager Effie

Getting stuck in!

A Bold Forager heads home

Then home, where we washed the first lot, patted them dry and made some wild garlic pesto - this was served up later, swirled in some creme fraiche, with pan fried mushrooms on a bed of spaghetti.  In addition we quickly concocted some home-made garlic and ramsons bread - baked for 10 minutes in the oven, I have to say this was the best garlic bread I have ever eaten.

Washed, dried and ready to be made into Pesto

Last night saw prawns cooked in olive oil with shallots and minced wild garlic and chillies served with creamy mash that had some more chopped ramsons stirred through it and a baby leaf salad. See what I mean - mad for it!


Tonight, Spanish Tortilla with wild garlic and shallots, Feta, Wensleydale and Gran Padano cheeses served with baby leaf, spinach and wild garlic salad.


And so it will continue, adding it to fish dishes, baked new potatoes, soups, salads, whatever springs to mind; until we have run out of ramsons or gotten so sick of them that we give up! I reckon on the latter.

Delicious and free, straight from the field!