In this recipe, I removed the immature seeds – the inner white part of the milkweed pod. I looked for young pods, which tend to be small, rough textured, and do not split open easily.
I wanted to see if cooking the insides of the pod would make it stringy, like cheese. In this case, I used white mushrooms, so I could focus on the milkweed.
Ingredients
-
- 12-18 milkweed pods
- 1/4 cup cooking oil or butter
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2-3 cloves chopped garlic
- 1/4 cup vegetable stock or water
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
Preparation
1. Peel outer shell from milkweed pod and remove white center.
2. Discard any brown or discolored centers.
3. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add pod cores and boil for 2-3 minutes.
4. Remove pod cores from water, drain and set aside.
5. Coat skillet or cast iron pan with oil or butter.
6. Add onions and garlic, cook over medium high heat until golden.
7. Chop cooked pod cores.
8. Stir milkweed pod cores and mushrooms into mix.
9. Add liquid as needed until vegetables are cooked and pods are stringy.
I was amazed to discover that the texture of the immature seeds will get stringy, like mozzarella cheese, although the flavor is light and sweet.
The next time I cook the inner core of the pod, I am going to add herbs and spices to mushrooms, peppers or other veggies. I think these pods will work well in soup. I am also going to try to freeze them.
I did not cook and eat the outer pod, although many wild food cookbooks do have recipes.
The key to milkweed pods is to harvest them young. There was no bitterness, no need to change water or to struggle.
Thanks for visiting my site, Michael.
I hope you give the milkweed pods a try. I parboiled and froze a few. When I was ready to use them, I cut them up while still frozen, then tossed them into my pasta sauce. The recipe came out just fine.
Please let me know if you do eat the milkweed pods and if you enjoyed them.
I’m trying to find out if I can freeze cleaned milkweed flowers [not yet open]. I have eaten them several times but don’t want to eat them daily, so can I freeze them for later consumption? I haven’t found one website that specifically gives me an answer. Thanks for your help.
Hi Georgia,
I’ve done this with the milkweed pods and I’m going to try it with the milkweed flowers, since you asked. What I do is bring water to a rolling boil, plunge the milkweed pods (and soon unopened flowers) into the boiling water, wait for the water to come to a boil again and give it another 60-90 seconds. Take the milkweed out of the boiling water, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process, then freeze them.
I know this works very well with the milkweed pods, and also with many green vegetables, so I’m confident this will work with immature milkweed flowers.
As soon as I get a chance to do this (I’m moving to a new house), I’ll write about it.
Enjoy.
JJ
Torrential rains have kept me from getting into the field, but my foraging friend Joe Brandt has tried to freeze milkweed flower buds and was not satisfied with the texture or taste.