Eating this invasive

I was honored the other day to hear from the wise gourmand behind "Urban Plants," the Web log devoted to weeds.

The "Urban Plants" authority commented personally on my eating o' the bishop's weed, known in German as Giersch, pictured below.

It is wonderful to be able to eat your weeds especially when working on a book about America's greatest concert pianist keeps you too busy to pull them up and discard them. And hearing from the "Urban Plants" mastermind inspired me.

This week is all about bishop's weed! We had hippie week, remember? So this week is weed week.

Last night we started out small. Bishop's weed stood in for cilantro in Puerto Rican Cabbage Salad. I have seen bishop's weed described as a kind of cross between parsley and cilantro. That recipe, by the way, is one of my favorite cole slaws. It has practically zero calories. And it is really easy and good. Looking it up online just now I am not surprised to see other people have rated it five stars.

I grew more ambitious, weed-wise, with a Turkish red lentil soup. In this soup the bishop's weed stood in for spinach! That is a funny recipe, by the way. It starts out calling for, ahem, organic spinach. But nowhere in the directions does it mention the spinach. So I just tossed it in there. I mean, I tossed the bishop's weed in there.

This morning I enjoyed my red lentil and bishop's weed soup for breakfast. Meanwhile I am trying to think what to make next. Perhaps a bishop's weed frittata. Thank you, Urban Plants, for the inspiration!

If you have time it is fun to check out the Urban Plants web log. The post I read on Giersch was part of an apparent series on Urban Plants of Berlin. Other posts I love include "Aggressive Orchids in Kaua'i, Hawai'i" and  "The Giant Thistle of Neuruppin, Germany."

Urban Plants wrote to me: "Hope you enjoy eating this invasive!"

I do indeed!