The most popular pokeweed recipe I know, Southern polk salad with eggs and bacon will stir fond memories for people who grew up eating the plant. There's a few things to know, the most important being how to cook plant to make it safe to eat. You can use poke salad greens or peeled poke shoots to make it. If you're like me, you may start to crave a giant pan of it every spring.

A pan of cooked polk salad with eggs and bacon. — Poke sallet with eggs is a foragers breakfast of champions.

How to Prepare Pokeweed

It's important to harvest plants that are young. Young plants can be a few inches tall, or 4-5 feet depending on the size of the root. As long as the poke plants haven't started to flower both the pokeweed shoots and leaves can be cooked.

Young poke plants (Phytolaca americana) with red stems growing near a garden. — Poke plants *(Phytolaca americana)* growing in Minnesota around the middle of June.

That said, older, taller plants are the best for eating as they have thick stems that can be peeled. If I harvest large shoots I discard the leaves and skin after peeling.

Peeled pokeweed shoots (Phytolcaca americana) on a cutting board. — Peeled pokeweed shoots are the best part of the plant. They're also easier, and safer to cook than the greens.

Young Plants with Shoots and Leaves

With small poke plants both the stems and leaves are cut up and cooked together. They require longer cooking than peeled shoots as the toxins of the plant are concentrated in the skin.

A bowl of cut up poke greens and stems. — Stems and leaves of young poke plants can be cooked together.

After peeling or cutting the plants are par-boiled in three changes of water. This is demonstrated in the video.

Boiling pokeweed shoots in a pot of boiling water to make them edible and safe to eat. — Boiling peeled pokeweed shoots.

After boiling they can be cooked right away or refrigerated for a few days. If you cook poke greens, make sure to squeeze as much water from them as you can to avoid splattering.

Boiled poke sallet greens and stems on a cutting board. — Boiled young stems and greens squeezed of water and ready to cook.

How to Cook Poke Salad with Eggs

If you can make scrambled eggs and bacon, you can make this. First, cook the sliced bacon in a pan until the fat renders and the bacon is crisp.

Slices of bacon in a carbon steel pan cooking. — Cook the bacon in a cast iron skillet until the fat renders.

Adding boiled pokeweed shoots to a pan of bacon. — Add the boiled poke after the fat is rendered from the bacon.

Adding eggs to a pan of cooking poke sallet greens and bacon. — Push the greens and bacon to the side of the pan and add the eggs.

Stirring scrambled eggs with a spatula in a cast iron pan. — Stir the eggs to break up the yolks. Don't mix them with the greens until they're completely cooked.

A finished pan of polk salad with eggs and bacon in a cast iron skillet. — Add some hot pepper vinegar, hot sauce or a drizzle of sorghum molasses and serve.

More Wild Stem and Shoot Vegetables

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Southern Style-Polk Salad with Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Classic Southern-style poke greens with scrambled eggs and bacon. Serve it with hot pepper vinegar on the side.

Prep Time30

Cook Time7

Total Time37

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American, Southern

Keyword: poke sallet and eggs

Servings: servings

Calories: 333kcal

Author: Alan Bergo

Cost: 5

Equipment

1 3 gallon pot for blanching
1 1 gallon pot
10 inch cast iron skillet

Ingredients

4 oz Sliced bacon I prefer homemade bacon
4 tablespoons bacon grease saved from rendering bacon
1 lb Poke salad greens (2 cups after boiling and squeezing dry)
4-6 large eggs
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
Hot sauce or hot pepper vinegar to taste

Instructions

Prepare the poke

Have a large pot filled with enough water to fill a smaller, 1 gallon pot 3 times.
Bring both pots of water to a boil. Add the poke greens and stems to the smaller pot. Cover and bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Drain the greens, then fill the pot with fresh boiling water, cover bring to a boil again. Repeat the process one more time.
Drain the greens and rinse with cold water and squeeze dry.
If you use large, peeled pokeweed shoots they can be boiled in one change of water for 8 minutes instead of the triple boil.

Bacon and Eggs

Add the bacon to a cold cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp. Drain the fat off and reserve.
Add the cooked poke to the pan and mix with the bacon, adding roughly 3 tablespoons of bacon fat. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat until the water has evaporated.
Push the greens and bacon to the side of the pan. If the pan looks dry, add a little more bacon grease. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Crack the eggs in the pan and break them up with a spatula.
Cook, stirring the eggs only for a minute or two. When the eggs are just cooked, turn the heat off and stir the eggs into the greens and bacon.
Serve with hot pepper vinegar on the side, sorghum molasses, or anything else you like.

Notes

While poke greens are the most traditional, this recipe is great with many leafy greens. Feel free to substitute your favorites if you don't have access to poke.

Nutrition