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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Spring Greens Pudding

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Nettle, dandelion and ramp leaf pudding

A British-inspired pudding made from wild spring greens. Think of it like a giant plant-flavored dumpling.

A spring green pudding made from wild greens, allium leaves and barley flour is an old recipe from times when a household might have had just one pot. To me, it’s the sort of cooking that evokes ancient stone farmhouses with roaring fires heating a joint of game. 

As an American who grew up with two-toned plastic pudding cups in the lunchroom, the words “savory pudding” bring  up mixed feelings for me. As some of you will know, in Britain a pudding is something completely different, and could mean anything from a sort of sweet, boiled fruit cake served with hard sauce to black pudding/blood sausage. 

Nettle, dandelion and ramp leaf pudding

Not as romantic as suspending the pudding in a cauldron with a joint of venison, but it works.

There’s a decent amount of account online of people recreating nettle pudding specifically, and a bunch of claims that it’s the oldest recipe in the world. If it is or isn’t, I can’t tell you (I doubt it, as most of the recipes use a cup measure) but I do know nettles are an ancient food. What really mattered to me was seeing if I could make a version of it that would be something I’d like to eat. It turned out better than I expected.

It’s easy to put together, and makes for a fun experiment if you like traditional cooking methods. Take some wild greens and ramp or onion leaves, wash and dry them and chop fine, then in some barley, oat, or a similar flour, and salt.  Some of the recipes I’ve seen include meat, but I omit it here to make it easier to adapt for vegetarians.

Edible dames rocket basal leaves or Hesperis matronalis

Dame’s rocket is just coming out of the ground where I am and is a great spring green to know if you haven’t had it. 

I also add an egg to help bind it, since I use a bit more greens than I’ve seen in other variations, but it’ll set without it too. When it’s all mixed together, you wrap everything up in a ball with cheesecloth, tying it to a spoon you can suspend over a pot so the ball is submerged in stock, and simmer it for a couple hours.

After the pudding’s cooked, you cut into wedges and serve with some of the cooking liquid. It’s a fun way to eat greens as a starch, especially if you want to use a couple strong tasting ones like dandelions or garlic mustard. 

Nettle, dandelion and ramp leaf pudding

I was skeptical when I cut up my first greens pudding, thinking it would be overly dense. It’s more tender than it looks. 

It makes for a good side dish, first course, or, with some sauteed mushrooms or extra wilted greens, a vegetarian main course, served with a ladle of the cooking broth. The texture’s surprisingly meaty, and, formed into a log you could probably get away with call it plant sausage. In the images here I had it for lunch, with a handful of ham and some extra watercress, but just a thread of good olive oil and grated parm is good too.

A few spring greens I might use 

  • Dames rocket 
  • Dandelions 
  • Nettles 
  • Watercress 
  • Wild onion or ramp leaves 
  • Waterleaf 
  • Cow parsnip leaves (in small amounts-these should be blanched before chopping) 
  • Garlic mustard (in small amounts) 

Flours 

As you don’t need gluten here, you can make versions using all kinds of different flours, just don’t use white flour as it’s not very interesting. Here’s some that will work. Buckwheat will give it even more of a meaty texture. 

  • Buckwheat
  • Wild rice 
  • Oat 
  • Barley 
  • Millet 
  • Acorn (up to 1/3 of the total weight of flour) 

Nettle, dandelion and ramp leaf pudding

Nettle, dandelion and ramp leaf pudding
Print Recipe
4 from 5 votes

Spring Greens Pudding

An English-style pudding made with foraged greens, wild onion greens and barley or other flour simmered in broth. Serve it as a side dish or a vegetarian main course.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time2 hrs
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: British
Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 6 ounces (170 g) assorted wild greens, finely chopped
  • 2 ounces (55 g) wild onion leaves, ramp leaves, or green onions tops (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup 115 g low-gluten flour, such as barley, oat, wild rice, or buckwheat
  • 1 large egg optional
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 6 cups stock, such as chicken or mushroom the exact amount can vary a bit depending on the size of your pan

For Serving

  • Good-tasting oil like such as EVOO, Smude’s sunflower, or a nut oil
  • Freshly grated parmesan Parmesan cheese optional
  • Fresh-cracked black pepper

Instructions

  • Wash the greens and onion leaves, then dry well. Grasp all of the greens on a large cutting board, and shred them finely with a large knife, then mound the greens back together, rotate 90 degrees, and shred again. Finely chop all of the greens, then combine with the remaining ingredients and allow to rest for a few minutes to allow let the salt to draw moisture from the greens.
  • In a medium saucepan, bring 6 cups or so of stock to a simmer. Form the dumpling into a ball as well as you can, then wrap it in cheesecloth to help it hold its shape. Use more cheesecloth than you think you’ll need, tying it around a wooden spoon or a similar utensil to suspend the dumpling in the cooking liquid.
  • Simmer gently for up to 2 hours, or until tender, then remove the dumpling, unwrap it, slice it into wedges, and serve with the broth it cooked in, topping each bowl with a drizzle of good- tasting oil. Pass the Parmesan and pepper at the table.
  • Variations
  • Four cups of finely minced greens like such as parsley, spinach, and kale can be substituted for the wild greens and wild onion leaves. You can make your own blend of greens using whatever’s available to you.

 

Related

Previous Post: « Cooking with Green Walnuts
Next Post: Cheremsha: Siberian-Style Fermented Ramp Leaves »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Taija

    April 16, 2022 at 8:36 am

    I just will cook it today, was looking for such recipe. The greens here ( Switzerland) are growing enormously….thanks for posting this

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 16, 2022 at 8:54 am

      Have fun Taija! It’s still pretty cold up here in WI. We probably have a week or two before I can really gather things in quantity.

      Reply
      • Taija

        April 18, 2022 at 11:13 am

        4 stars
        Alan, since end of Februrary ramps, since one month more than 20 different wild herbs. Now the trees are coming to harvest. Made both versions of your recipe, The broth was delociouse, Took miso.

        Reply
  2. Liz

    April 16, 2022 at 9:13 am

    Thank you for posting this beautiful ancestral recipe. Is something missing in the directions part of the recipe?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 16, 2022 at 9:43 am

      It seems pretty clear to me. Something in particular I can clarify?

      Reply
  3. Summer

    April 16, 2022 at 9:41 am

    I must tell u Mr Bergo that in the enormous world of food, that u r my favorite chef to follow. Thank u so much for what u r doing; I treasure ur book & am eagerly awaiting your next 😊

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 16, 2022 at 9:46 am

      Thanks Summer. As far as the next book, it’s kinda complicated. Writing the last one was really expensive, so Im trying to figure out how I can afford to write the next one, as odd as that may sound. It’ll happen though.

      Reply
      • Colleen

        April 21, 2022 at 6:25 am

        Perhaps you may want to look into Amazon KDP publishing? You put together your book and Amazon publishes and prints it for you! They get a high royalty rate but it’s free to get your work out there. 🙂 Hope this helps.

        Reply
        • Alan Bergo

          April 21, 2022 at 10:13 am

          I looked at it with a different business, it’s a racket and there’s a bunch of class-action lawsuits going. Self publishing is an option but it’s a big learning curve.

          Reply
  4. Scott K

    May 14, 2022 at 11:18 am

    Your comment about it almost being like a plant sausage got me thinking about adapting it to borrow from Italian chickpea polenta instead of using oatmeal or other grains. I think I may try it both ways. Another one I might try is gram flour.
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 18, 2022 at 5:57 am

      All of those would work well.

      Reply

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Alan Bergo
I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. You tak I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. 

You take the pure juice of the leaves, mix it with salt, Koji rice, and more chopped fresh ramp leaves, then ferment it for a bit. 

After the fermentation you put it into a dehydrator and cook it at 145-150 F for 30 days. 

The slow heat causes a Maillard/browning reaction over time. 

After 30 days you strain the liquid and bottle it. It’s the closest thing to plant-based fish sauce I’ve had yet. 

The potency of ramps is a pretty darn good approximation of the glutamates in meat. But you could prob make something similar with combinations of other alliums. 

The taste is crazy. I get toasted ramp, followed by mellow notes from the fermentation. Potent and delicate at the same time. 

I’ve been using it to make simple Japanese-style dipping sauces for tempura etc. 

Pics: 
2: Ramp juice 
3: Juicy leaf pulp 
4: Squeezing excess juice from the pulp
5: After 5 days at 145F 
6: After 30 days 
7: Straining through Muslin to finish

#ramps #veganfishsauce #experimentalfood #kojibuildscommunity #fermentation #foraging
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
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