Voted the best plant to fritter by some local Devon foragers recently, Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) tastes awesome when prepared as tempura. Try this Ground Ivy recipe over an open fire on lazy Summer days with your family and friends.
Ground Ivy Tempura Recipe Ingredients
- 2 handfuls of Ground Ivy leaves
- 150g plain flour
- 1 tbsp of cornflour
- 1 egg
- 300ml of cold water
- 100g rapeseed oil
- Soya sauce and/or honey
- Salt
Ground Ivy Tempura Recipe Instructions
- Separate out the Ground Ivy leaves.
- In a chilled bowl, mix together the plain flour and cornflour, egg and cold water and a pinch of salt until you have a thin batter.
- Heat the oil until it is very hot.
- Dip each ground ivy leaf in the batter, until it is well coated, then…
- Fry the battered Ground Ivy leaves until lightly crisped, remove and drain on kitchen paper.
- Serve with soya sauce or honey
Makes: 3 people
I have personally made this exquisite ground ivy tempura, and must I say, it was the most damned delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. The beautiful notes that came through the ground ivy’s flavor and that salty crunch through the batter WAS HEAVEN. Highly recommend. I’ve also tried this recipe with Creeping Jenny (a cousin of ground ivy) and it works just as well.
Yours,
A Dedicated Forager
William – wonderful to hear you liked it. Thanks for giving your feedback!
Love the sound of this recipe and all your recipes by the way!. What an ingenious way to eat these leaves!
Just one side note on the oil used for frying, to me rapeseed is such a toxic country side destoyer…
I’ve seen some very freekish looking mutated pineapple chamomile growing on the egdes of rapeseed fields (can send photos). No idea what fertiliser or pesticides were used but they clearly had an effect on our lovely wild edibles!