Oxeye Daisy

This plant-based Oxeye daisy greens recipe is a variation of a dish you might find being sold by Vietnamese street food hawkers.

A variation might be a bit of a push, it’s more like inspired by really. But who cares.

The fact is it cooks tofu in a way that makes it delicious. No longer do you have to deep fry the death out of it, and eat the equivalent of insipid rubber bands!

I don’t like deep frying, and my boil and bake method works a treat!

Common name: Oxeye Daisy
Scientific name: Leucanthemum vulgare
Family: Asteraceae

Ingredients

• 800g of firm organic tofu (equivalent to roughly two packs)
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 300g fresh tomatoes (diced)
• 100g oxeye daisy greens (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons of ‘gia vi’ (2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp dried onion pieces)
• 2 lemongrass sticks
• 4 tablespoons of Clearspring organic tamari
• 1 tablespoon of Clearspring organic sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon of chipotle chilli flakes
• 100ml of water

Instructions

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil (500ml), add the cubed tofu and lemon juice and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the tofu and pat dry with kitchen paper.
2. While the tofu is simmering turn on your oven to 200°C – 400°F – Fan 180°C – Gas 6.
3. When cool cube the tofu, and place on baking paper on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
4. Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a heavy bottomed pan and gently fry the crushed garlic, keep stirring making sure it doesn’t burn. About 30 seconds. Then add the diced tomatoes, baked tofu and stir well.
5. Do this to make the ‘Gia vi’. In a herb/coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle, add 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp dried onion pieces and grind until a powder.
6. Add 2 tablespoons of the mixture to the saucepan, along with ¼ teaspoon of chipotle chilli flakes and mix in.
7. Bash/bruise the lemongrass until it starts ‘splintering’ then add to the saucepan along with the chopped oxeye daisy greens.
8. Pour in 100ml of water, stir and simmer for about 15 minutes until the sauce becomes thick. Once off the heat, add one tablespoon of organic sesame oil, and serve on top of millet or rice.

Serves: 2 as a main dish

Delicious Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) are budding forth as I write this. One of the most unique taste sensations in the hedge, I have a love affair with this plant that takes me into the realm of the sensuous.

The leaves and leaf tips are extraordinary, but the Oxeye Daisy flower buds have got to be tried to be believed. Divine is not too strong a word to describe them!

Oxeye Daisy Caper Recipe: Ingredients

• 500ml brown rice wine vinegar
• 1tsp sea salt
• 1tsp red pepper corns
• 1tsp mace
• 2 garlic cloves (chopped)
• oxeye daisy flower buds (enough to fill two 0.25 litre kilner screw top jars)

Oxeye Daisy Caper Recipe: Suggested Instructions

1. Put rice wine vinegar into a small saucepan, and add all the ingredients, except for the oxeye daisy flower buds.
2. Bring the rice wine to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow sit for at least an hour until the mixture has gone warm/cold.
3. In the meantime, put your oxeye daisy flower buds into the jars, and pack them down as much as you can.
4. Next strain the vinegar through a sieve, to remove the spice ingredients, and pour into your jars until they are full, then cap.
5. You may start eating them within 24 hours, but best to leave them to mature for a month.

Makes: 2 x 0.25 litre jam jars

Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) is one of the most delicious and uniquely flavoured wild herb-vegetables that I use in the kitchen. Savoury, herby and all things delicious I chanced upon the idea for this recipe whilst mulling over how to make a tabbouleh without the usual bulgur wheat.

Also, I had been taught by a middle eastern friend that the regular tabbouleh you find in restaurants and in shops and supermarkets is a pale comparison to the green-laden recipe that is the traditional way to make tabbouleh.

Rather than have a smattering of green matter, the traditional loads up on the green matter and cuts way down on the bulgur. But having friends who are gluten-free, and not being too big a fan of wheat at the best of times myself, I decided to replace it with quinoa. Note: There have been reports that quinoa is not good for celiacs or people who are gluten intolerant, however, a recent study suggests otherwise.

Ingredients

• ½ cup of cooked quinoa
• 1 handful of chopped parsley
• 1 handful of chopped oxeye daisy leaves
• ¼ cup of chopped fresh mint leaves
• 4 medium tomatoes chopped
• ¼ cup of light olive oil
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 garlic clove (chopped finely)

Suggested Instructions

1. When quinoa is cold, place into a bowl.
2. Next add the chopped parsley, oxeye daisy leaves, mint and garlic. Mix thoroughly and allow to sit for 30 minutes or until ready to serve.
3. Just before serving add the tomatoes, olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt. Mix thoroughly, and allow to sit for 15 minutes then serve.

Serves: 2

It’s bitterly cold outside and I’m wandering around my local foraging area looking for something to gather. My body is wanting something with lots of garlic, and oil and fresh raw tomatoes.

Not the usual foods one would necessarily want on a cold day, but as I am just getting over a monstrous upper respiratory infection, one which has seen me consume upwards of 15 garlic cloves a day overtaking regular antibiotics. I think the craving for the foods stuff is still part of my ‘cure’, well bread aside that is.

Suddenly in the bleakness of the Winter morning, I spy a huge crop of young Oxeye daisy (Leucanthamum vulgare) greens and instantly harvest some. Bruschette flashes through my mind, and so I return to my kitchen, to start making my immune boosting recipe.

I break the ‘Italian Rules’ and don’t bother with rubbing the warm bread with a solitary clove of garlic, instead choosing to crush the garlic cloves into the yummy tomatoey oxeye daisy mixture. Providing you and your accomplices all eat together, there shouldn’t be any moaning about the garlic stench that evaporates through the pores of your skin!

Ingredients

• 1 handful of oxeye daisy greens (chopped)
• 2 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 14 cherry tomatoes (quartered)
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Rustic bread

Suggested Instructions

1. Put chopped cherry tomatoes into a bowl. Make sure they are ripe and at room temperature, then add the crushed garlic and red wine vinegar. Mix together. Season with salt and pepper. Leave to stand for 15 minutes.
2. Next slice your rustic bread into portions, and lightly toast, when done drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the bread, then top with the tomato and oxeye daisy mix. Serve immediately as a light luncheon snack.

Serves: 2

Oxeye Daisy has a unique taste and is considered by many to be one of the best wild edible greens. This Oxeye Daisy recipe is a perfect accompaniment for spicy foods like curry.

Oxeye Daisy Recipe Ingredients

• 20g Oxeye Daisy leaves
• 150ml coconut milk
• 150g natural yoghurt
• ½ a lime (juiced)

Oxeye Daisy Recipe Instructions

1. Roughly chop the Oxeye Daisy leaves
2. Put in a bowl and then add the yoghurt, coconut milk and lime juice
3. Mix thoroughly and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Serves: 2