I almost hate to admit that I love the taste of this delicate spring ephemeral. Spring Beauties make a mild salad base, just like lettuce. I pick them by pulling them out of the leaves. They tend to break off cleanly below ground. I leave at least three plants for every three plants I pick. I want them to come back next year. These beauties substitute for spinach in most any recipe. I hate to harvest many though. They are soo pretty.
I eat the flowers, leaves, stems and all. But my newest discovery has me so excited! I made a pesto where one cup of the 4 cups of spring greens was spring beauties. That pesto was definitely gourmet. The recipe for my pesto is coming. Since I didn’t measure anything when I made it, I need to make it again and be more of a scientist about it. Now all I can say is- here is a rough estimate and it was Delicious!!
Wild Wonderful April Pesto
Ingredients : 3-4 cups spring greens lightly packed, 3/4 cup toasted pecans, two whole ramps greens to bulbs, 1/2 cup (plus 1/4 cup more for garnish) grated Parmesan cheese, 1/4-1/2 cup or more olive oil to bring to desired pesto consistency, salt to taste.
Blend (I used a Vitamix) throughly til smooth and spring green. Serve over pasta garnished with violets and/or yellow dandelion flower petals and Parmesan cheese
For the spring greens mixture I use what I have. The last time I made it, I used about a cup of spring beauties, a cup of dandelion leaf tips, a cup of daylily stem bases and a mixture of garlic mustard, cutleaf toothwort, violet flowers, purple dead-nettle, wood sorrel, and chickweed. I went light on my least favorite greens: garlic mustard and toothwort. I feel obligated to pull as much garlic mustard up as I see because it is an invasive. I wish I liked it- But Yuck! So not much of that.
You can eat that? 