How To Make the Most of Your Nastursiums!

Is your garden full of nastursiums (lots of orange / yellow / red flowers with big lilypad type leaves)? Have you thought of making a meal with them? We did…

We’ve been eating our nastursiums three ways this month.

1. ‘Poor Man’s Capers’ (in the picture). These are the seedpods brined then pickled. The capers you’d buy are made from the buds of a different plant (capparis spinosa) but they both have the same kind of use - adding punch to fish dishes, salads, pizzas, savoury tarts. I actually prefer our poor man’s version; they’re crunchier and spicier. I used the recipe in the River Cottage Handbook No 2 but there are others online. Make sure you use only the green seedheads; you may find a few with a blush colour on them which should be avoided (though I haven’t found out why yet).

2. Pick from garden, wash, eat! (Leaves and flowers added to salads).

3. Nastursium Pesto. Another recipe from the River Cottage handbook. Basically, the usual basil is replaced with nastursium leaves so you can use any pesto recipe…I used half and half rocket and nastursium which worked well. Bear in mind that nastursiums have quite a pungent smell which I don’t mind but it may put some people off - be mindful of who you’re cooking for! We’ve eaten it with pasta (no surprises there!) and spread it onto tortilla wraps topped with salami then rolled up (like a thin swiss roll) and cut into slices for smart looking and very tasty nibbles.

Suggested Task: Try for yourself!

Make a meal (or several!) with nastursiums and leave a comment about the outcome…or a recipe.

Your comments.