Garlic Mustard Flavor Newsletter

This week: simmered greens with frizzled capers and pine nuts.

JB Douglas

Mar 25, 2024

Recipes

Garlic Mustard w/ Pine Nuts & Capers

JB Douglas

March 25, 2024

Garlic Mustard leaves can be peppery, earthy, and even bitter. This recipe pairs their assertive flavor with salty capers and sweet pine nuts to bring balance and texture to your next batch of simmered greens. Serve this alongside Spring game, spoon it over hummus, or toss it with orecchiette for an easy pasta lunch.

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Garlic Mustard

There are no surprises here: garlic mustard tastes like mustard leaves with a hint of garlic. The young leaves in early Spring tend to be the most palatable for eaters with an aversion to bitter flavors, but this week’s recipe is designed to taste great regardless of when the leaves are harvested. Later in the season, I like sauteeing or pickling the stalks of garlic mustard. The Summer flowers make a delightfully punchy garnish. The roots can be used to make horseradish. The seeds can be ground into mustard. But I’m always drawn to the versatility, ubiquity, and earthy taste of the fresh young leaves. Use garlic mustard as you would mustard greens, turnip greens, or kale (all of which are in the same plant family of brassicas). Simmer or stew them, blend them into sauces, or insert them sparingly raw in salads and sandwiches.

It may be challenging to find fresh garlic mustard leaves for purchase, but that shouldn’t stop you from foraging it yourself or asking a friend to point it out to you. Like purple dead-nettle, this plant is invasive, and harvesting it can be an act of environmental stewardship. See if your local farmer or gardener has any on their property; creating demand for plants like this puts big flavors in your kitchen while supporting native plants and habitats. Check the resources below if you’re curious to learn more.

If you’ve been keeping up with our flavor newsletters, you won’t be surprised that the internet is filled with recipes for garlic mustard pesto and chimichurri (they’re always the go-to for wild greens). Yang’s Nourishing Kitchen has a no-frills recipe for sauteed garlic mustard, and a 2009 Garlic Mustard Challenge in Wisconsin produced a community cookbook with lots of inspiration. Recipes include a ravioli, an egg salad, and something called “Garlic Mustard Green Yogurt Froth.”

If you missed TWG’s Snack Book, now’s a good time to give it a peek (it includes a recipe for a wasabi-like garlic mustard mustard).