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    Home » Types of Edible Wild Greens

    Bittercress / Wintercress / Barbarea vulgaris

    Published: Apr 7, 2019 Modified: Dec 15, 2022 by Alan Bergo This post may contain affiliate links 7 Comments

    Barbarea vulgaris also known as wintercress, bittercress and yellow rocket is one of the first plants to come up in the Spring where I live around Minnesota and Wisconsin, and it's an ok, widely available edible to know. Along with bergamot / Monarda fistulosa, it was also one of the first plants I ever knew, almost instinctively, that I could eat.

    Basal leaves of Barbarea vulgaris, wintercress, or bittercress, a wild, edible weed

    Don't let the name fool you though, although the leaves do resemble different species of cress, the flavor is quite different. I'm trying to be kind to the plant here, but everything I say should be prefaced by the fact that I don't eat tons of this plant, since there's a lot of greens I like more. Bittercress is ok as a cooking green in my opinion, and just ok.

    Even before I had my first foraging guidebook, I understood a few things about plants. Although I didn't know a lot, I knew was that there were a lot of plants with leaves that looked like carrots I should avoid (still do) and many that looked like arugula or some kind of mustard, of which any and all would be edible, even if I couldn't pin them down to species (still true).

    Barbarea vulgaris is in the Brassicaeae family, making it a cousin to mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage--you'll taste a bit of it's familial heritage when you nibble a leaf. Along with the brassicaceous flavor, you're also going to taste something else too: bitterness.

    Barbarea vulgaris, wintercress, or bittercress, a wild, edible weed
    Wild mustard raabs-4

    Surprise! Bittercress is Bitter

    I remember telling people these were wild mustard greens, and while I was technically right, bittercress is very different from the mustard greens or watercress (a closer relative) that you might find at the store. The biggest thing here to know is that bittercress, taking after it's name, is bitter.

    More bitter than a dandelion, more bitter than garlic mustard, it is 100% bitter, with a capitol B. There's no getting around it, and there's no culinary chef tricks to making that bitter disappear, not completely, anyway. It's so bitter in fact, that it's liable to offend most civilians and newcomers (at least in America) that you give a leaf to try.

    Basal leaves of Barbarea vulgaris, wintercress, or bittercress, a wild, edible weed

    The Value of Bitter Greens

    But, don't disregard the plant just because it has a strong flavor. Cultures around the world highly value bitter greens, especially in Asia, and in the Twin Cities where I harvest things occasionally, or play disc golf, I regularly see Hmong Immigrants harvesting this plant, along with dandelions from parks and other places, to bring home for the table.

    Just because a green tastes very bitter raw doesn't mean that it isn't worth eating, it just might take some creativity in the kitchen to find a way that you enjoy it, and some repetition to get used to it.

    Basal leaves of Barbarea vulgaris, wintercress, or bittercress, a wild, edible weed
    You'll often see many clusters of barbarea growing next to each other.

    Harvesting and Cooking

    Harvesting is easy, just clip the leaves with a scissors and put them in a bag--do be on the lookout for beetles and bug damaged leaves though, since bugs love the bittercress in some areas.

    The best time to harvest is going to be when the basal (early round formation of leaves) are growing--I like them about 4 inches long. The more mature they get, the more likely they are to have been snacked on by other things, but even then, you'll probably never notice cooked down in a meal.

    Humans have eaten much worse things than a few pre-nibbled greens foraged greens in our collective culinary history.

    Barbarea vulgaris, wintercress, or bittercress, a wild, edible weed
    Even in the early spring where I live, Barbarea I harvest in fields is often eaten by bugs--another reason the unopened flower buds are great. See more on the flower buds below.
    Barbarea vulgaris or bittercress, yellow rocket
    Barbarea vulgaris or bittercress, yellow rocket

    Curbing the bitter edge

    As far as cooking, this is where you can work to curtail the bitterness if it doesn't appeal to you. Here's my advice on doing that.

    Cook them

    Greens always taste stronger raw, and, while it won't remove the bitter, it will be less offensive than, say, eating a salad full of bittercress leaves, which even I'm not going to do.

    Blanch the greens, then soak

    Tannins and flavors in greens are going to be very water soluble, and people have been boiling greens to tame their flavor for a very long time. I don't recommend cooking any plant in multiple changes of water though, since they typically just over cook and turn to mush.

    What you can do, is let the greens soak in some cold water for an extended period of time after you blanch them in the cooking water, which won't cook them, but can still help draw out some bitter flavors. You can try this method before you cook them with some of the aggressive flavors I list below.

    Blending with other greens

    Probably the best for people just starting out with this plant. If you cut bittercress with "sweet" greens, like spinach, or wild greens like Virginia waterleaf, watercress or nettles, it will cut down on the bitter flavor. Use is in combination with the blanch and soak method above to make it do double duty.

    Cook with aggressive flavors

    This is my personal favorite, and one of the secrets you'll find in Asian and Italian food--both places where bitter greens and edible weeds aren't only tolerated, but are loved, and readily harvested in the Spring and throughout the growing season. Examples of aggressive flavors are generally spicy, salty, or otherwise rich-tasting things, including, but not limited to the following:

    • Fish sauce
    • Soy sauce
    • Colatura (Italian fish sauce)
    • Szechuan peppercorns
    • Fresh hot chilis
    • Flavored oils like toasted sesame or walnut
    • Anchovies
    • Garlic, garlic, garlic
    • Ginger

    Other flavor partners 

    • Fermentation (as in classic Chinese fermented mustard greens)
    • Rich, fatty meats, especially spicy sausage
    • Umami-rich foods like mushrooms
    Wild mustard raabs-4
    Wild mustard raabs, soon these buds will turn into yellow flowers, just like broccoli.

    Bittercress "Raabs" or Flower Buds

    I've saved the best for last. Sure, I think bittercress leaves are fine cooked in a blend with other greens, but the real reason you want to know this plant is for it's young, unopened flower buds, which, if you're ever cooked with gai lan or rapini, will look familiar to you, as they instantly did to me years ago.

    The unopened flower buds, while still bitter, are the perfect partner for a few of my favorite recipes using bitter greens, especially the classic Italian orrechiette barese, also known as orrechiette with broccoli raab or rapini.

    Orrechiette alla Barese with spring raabs (5)
    Orrechiette with broccoli raab is the perfect thing to make with Barbarea flower buds.
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jacqui

      April 18, 2021 at 3:50 pm

      I have a big jar of kimchi fermenting right now that includes possibly too much bittercress along with the radish leaves, turnip greens and ramps. It is, you guessed it, bitter. Now I like bitter greens and I can eat it, though I would not be unhappy if the bitterness were to fade a bit over time. But I doubt anyone else I know will be willing to eat it, and it's a pretty big jar. Kimchi for the whole year, at least. I'll let you know if the fermentation calms the bitterness. Sometimes it is just a matter of time. My dandelion bud "capers" are much less bitter at one-year old than they were when they were freshly made.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        April 18, 2021 at 6:07 pm

        Thanks Jacqui, sometimes I gather some when things are just getting going here but, like garlic mustard, it's not the best edible out there imo.

        Reply
      • Andy

        April 26, 2021 at 12:57 pm

        Was looking to do precisely that, Jacqui: Adding bittercress to 'stretch out' my ramp kimchi. I wonder if I should just blanch the unopened flower buds and be conservative with how many to add?

        Reply
        • Jacqui

          April 27, 2021 at 3:16 pm

          Hi Andy,
          I know the bittercress is tempting...
          But there are lots of other things you can add to "stretch out" your kimchi and still leave it edible for normal folks.
          I have had a lot of success with watercress (USE THE STEMS - THEY'RE THE BEST PART), mustard greens and garlic mustard (the leaf petioles of the latter are a bit tough but the young flowering stalks are great). And I just put up a jar of kimchi with japanese knotweed stems as about 1/4 of the total plant parts. It's too young to know how it will turn out, but I'm confident. I have, in the past, added young leaves and chopped leaf petioles of cow parsnip, and you could even try nettles. But seriously, I kind of regretted the bittercress experiment when I tasted it. But I'll let you know if the bitterness calms down as it matures.

          Reply
          • Alan Bergo

            April 27, 2021 at 7:26 pm

            The bittercress looks so lush right now. If only it tasted just a little better. 🙂

            Reply
    2. Carla Beaudet

      April 24, 2021 at 7:47 pm

      Got to disagree that "cooking won't remove the bitter". I find the raw taste of the greens completely too bitter for my liking (but I keep nibbling on them when I find them, so what does that tell you?) but when I boiled them in salted water for 7 min. the result was no more bitter than cultivated "mustard greens". (My husband ate them without complaint.) The season for the greens is over, but I took a tip from you and clipped some of the flower buds. Sadly, these do not stand up to 7 min. of simmering; they turned to mush and I ended up composting them. I plan to harvest some more (they're everywhere) and see if a quick blanching like the 30s you recommend in the orrechiette recipe will take away enough of the bitter for my taste and still leave some texture.

      Reply
    3. Debra A. Brooks

      January 13, 2022 at 1:28 pm

      I happen to love bittercress! One thing my foster mother Ann taught me about bitter greens, is to soak them in milk for about 15-20 minutes, you can either rinse them and sautee them I love these with real butter, mushrooms and onions or being dutch-afied lol I use that milk, and make a bacon dressing consisting of Milk, honey or brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar, I add, hard boiled eggs, mushrooms and onions (always) and sometimes also a wild mushroom sauce made with pheasantback mushrooms, Though me and lemons don't quite get along, I have steamed the cress and made them with a hollandaise sauce. But mostly the bacon dressing is my preferred method as I love dandelions and my Docks.

      Reply

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