Pickled Purslane

Pickled Purslane

Ingredients:
1 quart purslane stems and leaves, chopped into 1-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, sliced
10 peppercorns
1 quart raw apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Place chopped purslane in clean jars with tight-fitting lids. Add garlic and peppercorns. Pour vinegar over the purslane. (You can also
use old pickle juice or jalapeño pepper juice.) Keep this in the refrigerator at least two weeks before serving.
TROPICAL PURSLANE
2 cups shredded coconut
1½ cups boiling water
6 cups purslane stems and leaves
Combine the coconut and water and let set for 10 minutes. Strain and reserve the coconut milk. Combine the coconut milk and the
purslane greens and simmer gently until tender, for about 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. (From The Green Beret
Gourmet, by James Guttenberg, Guttenberg Press)
Like spinach, the plant should be lightly cooked in a small amount of water, seasoned, and eaten.
Gently fried, either alone or with onions, eggs, and so forth, it’s a delicious entrée.
The chopped stem and leaves also mix well in soup, stews, and omelettes.
Purslane seeds are harvested by gathering the plant stems, placing them on a sheet of newspaper,
and waiting a few days. The seed pods will continue to mature even after you’ve picked the plant.
You’ll be able to shake all the small black seeds out onto the newspaper. These seeds can be ground
and used as you would flour or sprinkled on top of a fresh loaf of bread before cooking.
Dried purslane has been found to be about 30 percent protein and 35 percent carbohydrates. One
hundred grams of purslane contains 2,500 international units of vitamin A when cooked; 0.10
milligrams of riboflavin raw and 0.06 cooked; 103 milligrams of calcium raw and 86 cooked; 25
milligrams of vitamin C raw and 12 milligrams cooked; 21 calories; and small amounts of
phosphorus, niacin, and thiamine.
MEDICINAL USES In 1986, purslane was identified as being the richest leafy-plant source of omega-3
fatty acids, a substance that helps reduce the body’s cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of heart
attack. This discovery was made by Norman Salem Jr., a lipid biochemist with the National Institute
on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland.
Interestingly, rather than suggest that people include purslane in their diets, Salem and his
collaborator, Artemis P. Simopoulos (of the American Association for World Health in Washington,
D.C.), studied range-fed chickens that fed on wild purslane. The yolk from one large-sized egg from a
purslane-fed chicken contained about 300 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids (17.87 milligrams per
gram), the same amount contained in a standard fish oil capsule and 10 times more than what is found
in a typical supermarket egg (1.74 milligrams per gram). Salem and Simopoulos’s findings about the
eggs were published in the November 16, 1989, New England Journal of Medicine.
OTHER USES We’d appreciate authenticated reports from readers.
Detrimental Properties
The only plant that is sometimes confused with purslane by the beginning naturalist is the mildly toxic
prostrate spurge, which has a similar shape and growing pattern. However, prostrate spurge lacks
yellow flowers, doesn’t have thick red stems, and tends to be much less conspicuous. If in doubt,
break a stem. The spurge immediately exudes a thick, white latex substance. Purslane has no such
white sap.