Chickweed Flavor Newsletter

Spring, sprang, Stellaria has sprung: chickweed is bouncing out all over!

JB Douglas

Mar 11, 2024

Recipes

Chickweed Gremolata Pizza

JB Douglas

March 11, 2024

Spring gets sprang with this bouncy green pizza! Chickweed leaves taste like tender pea shoots, and this recipe uses simple ingredients to make their flavor sparkle. In addition to piles of raw greens, you’ll make a chickweed gremolata to drizzle on top (which is just an unfussy herby green sauce). Make this whenever you find a patch of tender greens, and pair it with bright herby drinks like a classic Negroni or a celery sour mocktail.

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Chickweed

Young chickweed leaves and stems are unquestionably verdant (read: green!). Their flavor is bright, light, and pleasantly vegetal without being grassy. Compared to grocery greens, chickweed is most closely flavored like pea shots, but with a silkier texture and less toothsome bite. Later in Spring, some foragers prefer to consume only the tender tips of chickweed as the stems can become long or stringy. Even so, this whimsical plant makes an excellent salad green throughout the season. They can also provide a milder alternative for eaters who find herbs like fresh parsley too assertive (perhaps a chickweed tabbouleh?). Use chickweed as you would any tender shoot or leafy herb in your kitchen.

I don’t usually focus on the botanical names of plants here, but this one is so beautiful, that I often use it in place of the common name: Stellaria. You may notice it tangled amongst other greens like miner’s lettuce, wood sorrel, or cleavers, reaching around stalks and edging its way between blooms. It can be invasive in some regions, so feel free to eat the greens in fistfuls. If you don’t forage yourself, you may have luck asking your local farmer or gardener if they have any growing among their crops.

When you search for chickweed recipes, you’ll mostly find them used raw in salads and blended into pestos and dips. The choices may seem homogenous, but that’s because the green is so agreeable, there’s no need to transform it with added techniques or flavors. We featured chickweed pesto in this short documentary from Foraged with Anne-Marie Bilella and myself. Blog searches revealed some unusual spreads, like an umami Chickweed Spread from Edible Alaska, and something called ‘chummus.’ The raw greens also make an excellent smoothie, and I’d be remiss not to mention Alan Bergo’s stunning Chickweed Veggie Bowl.

If you’re stuck on where to start, I’d recommend pairings with peppery vegetables, like in this salad with carrots and radishes, or adding them into a mix of greens like mizuna or baby mustards. This week’s recipe, Chickweed Gremolata Pizza, riffs on that idea by serving them along the alliaceous bite of freshly fried garlic chips - and gently wilting the leaves in a warm garlicky oil makes their verdant flavor pop.