What is Purslane? A Secret, Scrumptious Superfood!

for those of you who live in an urban environment you may want to stay tuned for today's video we're talking about a simple way that you can forage for something that's very very healthy for you in fact it's a superfood and it's notorious for growing in the cracks of the sidewalk so stay with us [Music] depending on where you live in the world you have probably heard it called a million different names it's known first and foremost as purslane but if you're a horticulturist you might know it by the official term which i think is something like portulaca Eurasia or you might have heard it called little hogweed or if by chance you're watching from Malawi right now you know it as the buttocks of the wife of the chief that's what they call it in Malawi however I happen to be in Tennessee right now and we call it purslane here so let me introduce you to this amazing superfood that you probably didn't even know about growing in the cracks of your own sidewalk right outside your door as I film this just so you know it is late in the summer so you wouldn't have even seen this showing up in the middle of the spring or even through June June probably but once the temperature gets above 90 degrees you're gonna see some of these pop-up all in driveways in cracks in the sidewalk all different places you're gonna see this this is known as a weed however for centuries it has been used as a very healthy food throughout the world in many different countries interestingly it probably originated in India or Persia but we see it in most countries now where it gets hot enough to get above 90 degrees in the summer and it grows everywhere so we mostly know it as a weed it's going to grow in urban environments so those of you who are urban prep stutters this is perfect for you to know about if you are in an emergency situation and you need good solid nutrition go out and check the sip cracks in your sidewalk of course you need to know how to identify this correctly but once you do you're gonna recognize this is actually a superfood it's on the list of superfoods recognized around the world this little plant that's growing out of your sidewalk has more omega-3 fatty acids than any other green living plant now that's pretty amazing so let's look at this really close I want you to see it these little leaves that you see here are like succulents and so you're gonna want to eat them either when they're completely raw or just barely barely cooked or you just want to cook the daylights out of them okay one extreme or the other because anywhere in between they're gonna die and kind of get that mucousy type consistency like you see in okra and that's not really that scrumptious so either cook it keep them raw or barely cooked or cook to smithereens those are you two options either way though this is a superfood that's going to be super nutritious and you can add it my favorite thing would be to add it to just salads like potato salad is the easiest one for me but if you're fancy gourmet cook and you wanted to put it with tomatoes and feta cheese that would be fantastic some people use it with romaine lettuce almost any salad you could throw it in but it also could work in stir-fry or pureed up in your blender with your morning shake that you make for yourself when you bite into it it kind of bursts it has this little pop to it and it has a lemony crisp type taste to it a little bit cucumber E and a little bit peppery it it almost has a little spicy kick to it so my mouth is watering thinking about it but very tasty not bad at all you'll actually really enjoy it but let me show you how to tell the difference between it and its closest neighbor that you're gonna find growing nearby so look down here at this with me you see the purslane and it's really easy to identify when they're side-by-side but if by chance you're out on your own foraging I want you to be able to see the difference this here is common spurge and they both grow out from a central spot in almost like a big round circle and very low to the ground now I will say this if you buy the the seeds from a seed catalog this will grow about 4 to 6 inches high it kind of has some height to it it's just when it grows wild you'll see it very close to the ground like this but this common spurge here has a similar look the the stems are both reddish color they're both kind of succulent looking although the leaves of common spurge are not nearly as puffy they're they're the same shape but they're smaller and they're not like succulent leaves they're just like regular leaves just the same shape and the tell-tale sign really is when you pull this open up from the stem you're gonna see that white and I don't know if you can see that well or not but that white glue type Elmer's glue coming out of it that means that this is not one that you want to eat that's just kind of a good rule of thumb always now dandelions are kind of an exception to that rule but most of the time if you don't know how to identify a plant and it has white SAP coming out just just put it back down it's probably not one you should touch so this common spurge is what's most often confused with real purslane and now that you've seen them close side-by-side I hope you'll take notice of that and make sure that you don't get the wrong thing but do your research know very clearly what is and what is not what you want also let me say this if the purslane that you do find is in an area where they might have put pesticides or herbicides earlier in the year it's notorious because it's kind of a succulent it really soaks up any kind of moisture that was ever there and probably it's going to be filled with those toxic chemicals so you don't want to use that you really want something that's just out in a Wildish type area where it didn't have exposure to any kind of toxic chemicals because it will have soaked them up now when you do find some let me just show you how to harvest it this is so much fun you can either pick off each of the leaves one at a time and just put them in your little basket to bring inside and wash up and eat or I can pick this whole stem and just kind of run my finger down it and pull most of those leaves right off and into my basket or the the stems themselves are so easy to pop open and of course they don't have any white stuff coming out that's a good sign you can literally use the whole entire thing right here in your cooking if you like but the leaves are just the fun part to eat and great in salads so I like just pulling them off of the stems about like you use thyme or rosemary where you pull him pull your fingers down the stem and get those yummy little leaves off even Martha Washington George Washington's wife had her own recipes that she had recorded in some recipe books on how to use purslane that she enjoyed so I hope you take the time to do just a little bit of research and make this a fun project to your for yourself to learn exactly how to identify it and to go out and try it and enjoy it with me if you have knowledge of this and have already got some good recipes will you share them with the rest of us because we would love to try whatever it is that you've tried that you have loved purslane in alright share this video with somebody that you love that can be benefited by it and until we see you again god bless you and I hope that you'll go out and be a blessing to someone else thanks for joining us [Music] Colossians 1:28 says so we tell others about Christ warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us now go spread the word [Music] Oh

Channel: PREPSTEADERS

Views: 478,174

Rating: 4.9436307 out of 5

Keywords: Purslane, Foraging, prepsteaders, survival foods, urban survival, shtf, teotwawki, sidewalk superfoods

Id: QSjXFjTsAvs

Length: 8min 36sec (516 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2017