Marshmallow Soup

Since we're working on 'easy' identification, I just wanted to send out this video. The video was made by Sunny Savage (a popular hipster vlogger) interviewing Dr. John Kallas. I've a book or two of John's on the shelf and I enjoy that he makes science easy and fun to read. I wish more folks had his talent. Mallows are a popular medicine plant. They're soothing and mucilaginous and good for (among other things) sore throats and coughs. We learned how to make a yummy delivery system for their medicinal magic a few centuries back, and it came in the form of a sweet we now call a 'marshmallow'. Marshmallows were traditionally made from the plant Althea officinalis, but we can get a pretty good substitute in our own yards. Although Sunny doesn't state it in the video, I believe they are using Malva neglecta, a common little weed in our neck of the woods. We also have a lot of M. parviflora around, and they can be used interchangeably. I think most of you will recognize it easily enough. Although John calls it's fruit a 'pea', it's actually a shizocarp. I try to make it easy to remember plants so I often call the plant a 'cheese plant' because the fruit is often described as resembling tiny cheese wheels. I have taken John's recipe a few steps farther, and borrowing an idea from Euell Gibbons, use the mallow cream as a base in cream pies for vegan friends. It's turned out nicely. The drawback is that it takes a good long while to gather enough 'wheels'. (I had the good fortune to work as a fire look out one summer. It taught me endless patience. I may be the only person on the planet that's picked enough berries to make a grouse whortleberry pie.) This year, I plan on experimenting more with the root to see if it will give me that nice thickening quality. As in my prior post, if you find Malva neglecta and want to try some recipes (it's a bit early to find them fruiting yet) simply post a clear picture and we can help you make sure of identification. And be sure to look up the flower, leaf parts and family in 'Botany in a Day' and memorize them. Here is the Dr. Kallas video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGAUejE8BM Here is the CalFlora page for M. neglecta (just to help with id): http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=5352 If you want to see more of them, here is Feral Kevin's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdLxvPK0MHU Malva is a highly nutritious plant and contain calcium and magnesium, potassium, iron, selenium, and pre-cursers for vitamins A and C. Try young leaves added to salads, but some people don't like the 'slimy' feel of the leaves in their mouths. Linda Runyun dries the leaves, grinds them up and combines the powder with other flours for a nutritional boost. I've used the leaves to make 'Leafu' (see early in the archives to make this high protein tofu substitute). If any of you are familiar with Henrietta Kress, this is her recipe for Mallow Soup. (If you're not, I highly suggest her site, 'Henrietta"s Herbal'.) It's pretty good, certainly cheap to make, and reminds me of my mother-in-laws 'diet soup'. There are a number of 'ancient' recipes on line that I want to try, too. Mallow Soup (serves 6 - 8) 1 large onion 1 large tomato 2 bell peppers, preferable of different colors ½ bunch of celery 4 carrots 3 large potatoes 3 garlic cloves olive oil to cover the bottom of your soup kettle 6 cups of water, enriched with 2 Tblsp. of good-quality soy sauce or the same quantity of chicken broth 2 tsp. salt plus black pepper to taste. 2 large handfuls of clean mallow leaves and/or roots 1. Dice the onion; chop tomato, peppers, celery, carrots and potatoes. 2. Sauté the onions, adding the other vegetables as the onions start to wilt 3. Chop the garlic finely; add to the sautéed vegetables when they are looking golden and start smelling cooked. 4. Add water and seasonings; simmer for 15-20 minutes. A nice touch at this point is to blend the cooked vegetables, with some of the soup, and return the blended mass to the pot. Children especially appreciate blended soups. 5. Chop the Mallow into narrow ribbons: if using roots, slice finely. Add to the pot and cook a further 10 minutes. Serve with croutons, or chopped parsley, or simply on its own. Medicinally, my mentor Kiva Rose says: "Malva neglecta is an amazing tonic used across world to nourish the vital fluids of the body and to cool heat from inflammation and infection, it can also gently support your immune system, building your resistance to stress and infectious disease. It is among the best and most widely used medicines in the world." The tea is soothing to a dry, hacking cough and a cup a day is said to ward off lithic buildup (kidney stones). Mallow is one of those herbs that do so much, I just can't cover it all here. So there you have it. You should be busy for awhile, yes?

Making Leaf Curd

Leaf Curd (Leafu) is a solid food made from the coagulated protein curds of pulped edible leaves such as nettle leaves. Leafu makes protein available from leaves which would otherwise be too bulky in fiber to have significant nutritional value. I try to post this recipe every year. It is not particularly delicious, although I've only made smaller amounts. I'd like to bake a loaf of bread with the powder, but I haven't had the time to process much more than a cup or two. I don't really expect anyone to make it. I just want people to know that if things get tough, there are always options. Leafu is feeding a lot of starving people. The original research used kaffir lime (Citrus × hystrix), which is used in a lot of South Asian cooking. The nutritional breakdown from the original work was that 20 grams of powder would provide 12 grams of protein. The amounts of vitamins and minerals (such as 440 mgs of calcium and 49 mg of iron) are impressive. I opted to use chickweed, miner's lettuce and mallow for my first try a few years back. I've used other greens as well since then, especially nettles, and the taste hasn't changed much. Green. Certainly palatable. Today, I'm seeing a lot of bloggers talking about leaf concentrate so the idea is catching on. There are pictures in the photo album. It doesn't require specialized equipment. The toughest part is finding a really tightly weaved sieve. I really haven't found the perfect strainer yet, but the last time worked the best. I used a silk scarf that had a very 'open' weave. At first I tried a paint strainer but the holes were too big and the protein slipped through. Cheesecloth is too large a weave as well (for that final press). For my first batch, I started with about 8 cups of greens. I mixed chickweed, mallow, grass and miner's lettuce. From everything that I've read, tree leaves can be used as well. Break the cells mechanically by chopping them very, very finely. This is the most tedious part of the process. You could use a blender just as easily, (and I did in later trials) but I wanted to know how tough it would be to do by hand. It wasn't tough, just boring.

 I used cheesecloth to squeeze out the liquid out of the macerated plant material. I placed the resulting liquid in a soup pot and heated it up to about 95 degrees. After about 2 minutes, you can see the proteins start to aggregate.

 The final squeeze was the toughest. The only fine cloth that I had was a paint strainer and that had too coarse a weave so I lost about 1/2 of the proteins. I'm still looking for the perfect strainer for this step.

In the shot above, you can see the dark green 'curds'.

The curds in the strainer bag, above.  Don't squeeze too hard.

 The paste as it was was certainly palatable. Pretty much tasting like what you would expect.  You can shape it into balls or cubes or loaves.



You could add the paste to smoothies or just about anything. I dried the paste (spreading it thinly on foil). This powder could be added to baked goods, etc. for a nutritional bump, or used on it's own in survival situations.