What do Mallow Seeds Taste Like?
“Cheeses,” “peas,” “fruits,” “biscuits,” “donuts,” “seeds” - these little green guys have a dozen different names. While not technically a legume, I opt for the term “mallow peas” because I find them most similar to lentils in the kitchen (and not so much like cheese or fruit). Mallows come from the same plant family as okra, and the “peas” of this common weed taste noticeably like the cultivated vegetable. Raw, they’re mild and green, like the tiny slice of a kale stem or the mouse-sized bite of a fava bean. When roasted, they’re vibrantly vegetal, with notes of green tea and toasted almonds. And not to overstate it, but they really do taste like tiny okra.
Common mallow (we’re usually talking about Malvus neglecta) is a relatively familiar plant used in North American Wild Cuisine, but the vast majority of published recipes use the leaves or roots of the plant. Alan Bergo uses the leaves in soups, Liz Knight in Falafels, and Pascal Baudar bakes them into crispy chips. You’ll find recipes for meringues, marshmallows, and creams that take advantage of the plant’s mucilaginous properties from John Kallas, Ellen Zachos, Leda Meredith, and Sara Calvosa Olson. There is limited nutritional data about this particular species, but if you’re curious, I’ve linked a research paper that includes data about M. sylvestrus in the references below. And if you want another rabbit hole, the seeds of M. slyvestrus are also sometimes referenced as an ayurvedic herb, which you’ll find called Khubbaji.
For me, the roasted seeds have consistently proven to be the most inspiring part of the plant. In contrast to mallow confections that require you to remove the calyx from the pea to prep the recipe, the roasting method takes less than 15 minutes for cleaning, cooking, and eating. This week’s recipe yields a baking tray of crispy peas to sprinkle over veggies, salads, and soups like crispy lentils.
A few notes from my crispy mallow pea explorations:
If you can’t cook right after harvesting, the fresh peas will keep for several days stored in a brown paper bag with a damp paper towel in the fridge.
I’ve had good success freezing the fresh peas, calyx and all. They maintain their color and texture and thaw quickly.
I’ve tried pickling and capering these guys with mixed results. In both cases, the flavor isn’t bad, but the peas are not demonstrably transformed nor preserved by the brines. The peas’ color fades within a few weeks, and finished products just taste like mallow-peas-in-vinegar or mallow-peas-in-salt-water. Maybe Connie Byers knows something I don’t!
If you need a video visual, Alexis Nelson (@blackforager) also posted a (very complimentary!) video about roasted mallow peas this week:
Find the Flavor
Find Mallow Seeds
✓ Forage for yourself all over North America
✓ Ask a friendly forager or gardener to show you.
✓ Khubbaji on Amazon
Find Common Mallow Products
✓ Dried Mallow Leaf from Health Embassy on Etsy
✓ Common Mallow Seeds from KevanCraftsandSeeds on Etsy
(Skip the seeds if you’re in West Virginia, as Malva neglecta is on the state’s invasive species list)
Common Mallow References & Resources
Ellen Zachos’ Mallow Meringues
Native American Ethnobotany Database: Malva neglecta
Malva neglecta Invasive Species Listing
Open-source food: Nutrition, toxicology, and availability of wild edible greens in the East Bay (Stark et al., 2019)
Video of John Kallas making Mallow S’Mores with Sunny Savage
ForageSF Article
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