Here in the Midwest we just went through a brutal heatwave pushing triple digits, so cold food has been on regular rotation. This dip made from Lamb's Quarters has been on repeat for a while. It's one of my all-time favorite lambs quarters recipes.
Back in the Spring when I shared my now absolute favorite way to cook nettles, a commenter mentioned that the Turkish version with cheese I shared reminded her of Borani Esfenaj, a Persian dip made with spinach and yogurt.
I'd never heard of it, but I had a hunch It would make a good lambs quarters recipe standing in for the spinach as the two plants are related, wild spinach being one of the legion of common names for Lamb's Quarters around the world (Good King Henry is another fav of mine). That, and after writing a book about eating plants, I've been greedily searching out every interesting, traditional plant recipe I can find.
NERD ALERT. If you love cognates like I do, you might notice that the esfenaj in Borani esfenaj resembles words for spinach in other Languages influenced by Latin, and you'd be right, although the name appears to be derived from Arabic, then spread by the Romans.
Either way, I like to think of Lamb's Quarters as the original spinach, as Spinach as we know it probably wasn't introduced to Europe until around 11th Century, while Lamb's Quarters were undoubtedly consumed earlier, at least in Europe and Scandinavia. Here's a few cognate examples because I can't help myself.
Spinach around the world
- Espinacas (Spanish)
- Épinard (French)
- Espinafre (Portugese)
- اسفناج Esfenaj and Aspanakh (Persian)
- Spina (Latin)
- Spinaci (Italian)
I love spinach, but since I harvest so many plants to eat, I hardly ever eat it. That, along with the fact that the high quality young spinach I used to get from a farmer named George Weppler (who supplied Alice Waters) ruined me for the commercial stuff.
George's young spinach came as an entire plant, with attached clusters of tender stems you can cook alongside the greens.
It's hard to find spinach sold like that, but Hmong farmers at the St. Paul Farmers Market do a great job (along with other wild plants like amaranth and purslane) and Asian markets like Dragon Star often sell young clusters of spinach plants instead of the loose plastic tubs of leaves most Americans are sold. I wrote about George's spinach a few years ago in Eating the Whole Spinach.
Back to the dish, Borani Esfenaj is a popular Persian recipe. You take some yogurt, add some garlic, herbs, lemon zest and juice, season it up, chill, and serve it as a dip, hopefully with pita chips. Easy money.
Like I often do when I haven't made a dish, I looked at different proportions of commonly used ingredients in a few recipes, took an average of them for a standard sized batch, making sure to note "outlier" ingredients (English or black walnuts can make a nice addition). It's a bit like doing a stem and leaf plot for food research.
A bowl of plants vs a bowl of yogurt
As I was writing down my proportions to start with, I noticed many of the recipes seemed to be really heavy on the yogurt. Now, I'm a champion of yogurt, and I only buy the thickest unflavored yogurt with the highest fat content, but, I mostly use it as a condiment. I don't really eat dips of mostly yogurt.
Some recipes for Borani Esfenaj seem to call for paltry amounts of greens for my taste, with some as little as 6oz of fresh greens to a whopping 20 oz (2.5 cups) of yogurt (I don't use fresh greens as over time their water will dilute the dip). The version I saw in my mind was one that would make Popeye slap his Momma, as the kids say, so that's the version I made for you.
I got my ingredients together, scrapped my original proportions, and just seasoned it until it tasted good to me, going heavy on the lambs quarters. I used a little creative liberty with the flavors, but I think you'll appreciate it. Sometimes intuition is the best recipe.
Malva Variation
Mallow and violet greens can be off-putting to some to eat cooked all alone as they're mucilaginous (slimy) after cooking, but if you cook them, then chop them up fine, it can be a great way to use them if you have large amounts. Young-ish mallow and violet greens would all be good, but violets need to have their thin, tough stems finely chopped or removed.
"Fun in the Garden Remix"
You may have noticed there's two versions of the dish here: a simple one packed into a cup for easy scooping, and what I call the "Fun in the Garden Remix".
The latter is a showstopper you can make with a little selection of young growing things like flowers, young tender leaves, additional herbs, and anything that can add a blast of color you have available. Just look around for young growing tips of things and channel your inner goat.
To make the flat remix version, I spread the dip out on a chilled plate using a spoon dipped in cool water, form it into a thin layer on a plate, and use it as a canvas to build on with all the small edible things I can find.
Chickweed tips, young hop leaves, young grape vine tendrils, wild rose petals, day lilies, lilacs, comfrey flower buds, wood sorrel, chive flowers, and tender burgundy amaranth leaves are shown here, but you could use whatever you have available.
Wild Spinach Dip (Borani Esfenaj)
Equipment
- 1 3 quart soup pot for blanching greens
Ingredients
- 10 oz tender top clusters of lambsquarters (approximately 1 generous cup steamed, cooked and chopped Lamb's Quarters.)
Aromatic Oil
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground cumin
- 1 large clove garlic minced or grated on a microplane
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ⅛-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes to taste, or a dash of hot sauce
Dip
- 1-1.5 cups Thick Greek yogurt, unflavored Highest fat content you can find
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
- Zest and juice of one small lemon (Juice is optional-see note)
- 1.5 oz Very thinly sliced fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems (roughly half a bunch) or a mix of cilantro and fresh dill, or fresh mint, or another combination of tender herbs you like.
- A few chive, onion, or wild flowers to garnish, optional
Instructions
- Wash the Lamb's Quarters if you have any reason to suspect they’re dirty. Working in batches if needed, steam the Lamb's Quarters until tender (cook them a little longer than usual as this needs to be spreadable) then cool naturally spread out on a baking sheet. Chop the greens medium-fine and reserve, making sure to chop up any stems.
- In a small pan, heat the oil with the garlic*(see note) on medium heat until the garlic is starting to brown around the edges and is aromatic, about 5 minutes. Swirl the pan occasionally to promote even browning.
- Add the cumin to the pan, turn the heat off, and swirl to allow the garlic to continue cooking with the residual heat. Add the cumin and crushed red pepper to the garlic and stir. Do not allow the garlic to burn. If you're unsure about the color, go lighter as opposed to darker.
- Scrape the garlic-cumin-chili oil onto the Lambs Quarters, then add the remaining ingredients, mix well, taste and adjust the seasoning for lemon juice and zest* (see note), salt, and herbs, then continue tasting and adjusting the seasoning as needed until it tastes good to you. I like it with just a hint of spicy heat.
How much yogurt?
- I found anywhere from 1-1.5 cups of yogurt can work. I suggest adding it until you like the consistency and it looks like dip to you, with 1.5 cups being the maximum amount of yogurt. It should be easy and pleasurable to spread.
- Serve cold or tepid with pita chips or another vehicle, garnished with a few chive, onion, or ramp flowers.
Alternate plating "Fun in the Garden Remix"
- For a showstopping presentation, spread the dip out onto a flat plate using a serving spoon dipped in cool water, forming it into a thick mat about ½ inch tall. Build a little garden of young shoots, plants and flowers on the top and listen to the oohs and aaahs as it comes to the table.
Notes
Notes
*Grating the garlic on a microplane grater will give you the strongest flavor and cook the fastest here. *If you want to make the dish ahead of time, add the lemon juice right before serving to keep the green color bright. When, and if you add the lemon juice, the “darkening timer” will start, and the dip will lose its green luster after a few hours. You will get some tang from the yogurt alone, so let your taste buds guide you-but don’t skip the zest!Varying the flavors
Instead the cumin I use here, a combination of a few scrapes of nutmeg and grated fresh ginger is also good.Nutrition
Cynthia Pulman
I enjoy growing and eating this lovely plant, but I'm hesitating before using the fulsome trusses of flowers/seeds.
If it's a relative of quinola, will they be marvellously good for us? Or, will it be frightfully bad for us?
Is there a way of preparing the seeds... Has anybody tried? There are so many seeds!
Alan Bergo
Some species have a large flower head that can be cooked when green and unripe. I don't do anything with the seeds.
Jacqui
mmmm. I had made this with spinach a couple of times because my husband bought a lot of spinach ... but this weekend I foraged the "lawn" just before my friend's daughter came over to mow it for me and brought in a pile of lamb's quarters, purple amaranth, purslane, shepherd's purse, chickweed, plantain and malva that I blanched for this. It's great!
Thanks for this extremely flexible and excellent recipe!
Alan Bergo
I'm glad it worked for you Jacqui. Just made it for 80 people at a book dinner this week with the addition of mashed and chopped green coriander.
Michelle
My first time using Lamb's Quarters which are prolific in our garden patch. Lactose-free yoghurt is a necessity at my house, so I first put it through the yoghurt strainer given to me by my Persian friend for just these purposes. Used fresh mint instead of cilantro. Recipe was outstanding! Even ate it on toasted french bread for breakfast.
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you Michelle.
Jake Daws
So I measured 1 cup of lambs quarters and it says it is about 1 ounce. am I missing something?
Alan Bergo
Hi Jake, yes. The recipe says " 10oz lamb's quarters (approximately 1 generous cup steamed, cooked and chopped Lamb's Quarters.). 1 cup is 8 oz of most things, you may have a tiny bit more after you steam or blanch them. Let me know if that makes sense.
Marilyn Putney
My Scrabble crowd loved this. I gave stems and leaves a quick blanch before steaming (and saved the blanch water for sipping cold, no sweetening, perfect for this heat dome weather we're under in the inland PNW). Your recco re lemon zest before serving was right on, no juice needed. I'll be making this again while the plants are tender, right up there with dandelion as a seasonal celebration. Thanks, Alan.
Alan Bergo
Thanks, yes it’s perfect for game night! The lemon juice is optional, I just made a 5x batch for a small wedding today and I skipped it as I made it 24 hrs before hand.
Kerry Ann Smith
Always so inspired by your recipes and really appreciate the way you write… just ordered your book, Yayee! ✨ Am looking forward to trying this one as I’ve recently added a swathe of Lambs Quaters to our herb garden here at our Forest Garden in Devon (I love it’s colouring so much too) so this recipe is perfect timing. Grew up with many Persian friends and often had this dish so I’m excited to now prepare it for some of them sometime, with a twist 😉🥰 Thank you for your generous sharings Alan. X
Alan Bergo
Thanks Kerry Ann! May the book serve you well.
Hyde
Inner goat. That one made me giggle.
Alan Bergo
🙂
ViolaBlue
I'm so sad now. I always eat lambs quarters this time of year and would so love to try this recipe with them! However, with the weird spring weather and sudden heat wave, the leaf miner's have arrived BEFORE the lambs quarters are coming up. So my spring harvest is not going to be awesome. Climate change is chaotic for growers and foragers. But I'm definitely trying this out with what quality lambs quarters I can forage!
Kristen
Can I use violet leaves left after the violets have dropped their petals? I have tons of lambsquarters to use also, so I love all the recipes to try!
Alan Bergo
Yes absolutely. You may want to try blanching them to calm the slipperyness, or just steam, rough chop, and buzz in food processor. Keep a look out for the stems as they're tough.
Louise
I have malva and violets, and chive flowers and roses. So I'll try it! Thanks.
Alan Bergo
Let me know how it works for you.
Kim Knebel
I can't always do many of the recipes, I live in the desert southwest. Always love the articles, photographs and beautiful presentation. I actually got to try this and it is delightful. My chenopodium is a different variety, it looks like and is starting to go to seed but I got enough to try a small batch. Fun stuff! Thanks Alan
Alan Bergo
Glad we finally got one that could work for you in the Desert! FYI, I work occasionally with Ramona Farms, an indegenous-owned company in that area. If you aren't familiar with them, they sell really great stuff like hand-harvested and roasted heirloom pima corn cooked over mesquite coals. Ramona Farms
Kim Knebel
Hey Alan, thanks for the tip on Ramona Farms. This dip was so good, I'm doing it again before the lambs quarters all go to seed. Thanks for your crazy good recipes and beautiful website!
Alan Bergo
You’re very welcome. I just cracked open a bag of the Ramona 60 day parched cornmeal and it is one of the most delicious corn products I’ve used. They’re really doing Gods work down there. I’m working on sharing more of their stuff to boost their profile.
Hannah
Always spot on with the recipes. I haven’t tried lambs yet quarters yet but have it growing in my garden. This looks like an excellent way to try a new “weed”.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Hannah. You will love them! Just get them young before they go to seed.
Nina
Such a beautiful dish! Can't wait to try it! Thank you for lambs quarters recipe. They are a favorite veggie/plant of mine.
Lenny Russo
I spoke with George recently on the occasion of his and Fran's 51st wedding anniversary in May. George turned 82 this year, and he is still running the farm. He lamented that he can't find people to work it with him. I don't know how he does it.
Ben Rosen
Looks good
Alan Bergo
It is. I liked it so much I'm serving it at a wedding this weekend.