Wild Edibles: Red & White Clover

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Aug 31st 2008 @ 11:01AM

Red & White Clover are both edible raw in salads, as cooked greens, and more. The young and tender shoots and greens can be tasty, but older ones can get tough. Just stick to ones that look fresh and haven't gone grass-like and you should be fine. The flower heads are nutritious and full of protein but they should either be soaked in salty water for a few hours or briefly boiled or cooked before eating; so that they are easier to digest. Eating them raw is usually not as good an experience. I like them stir fried or sauteed until well done, or lightly battered and made into fritters or tempura. I find that the saltiness of the tempura dipping sauce works well with them. If the blossoms seem past their prime, or even going to seed, all the better. Because then you can dry them and grind them into a protein rich and nutritious flour. Just don't try to cook and eat them unless they are soft and fresh, or they will be quite unappetizing.

I was personally introduced to them when I was studying wilderness survival, and one day we had to prepare and eat them every way we could. It wasn't a high point of the week long course, but not the low point either.

One time when I was leading a three week trip in the wilderness and it was near the end of the course. Most of the food was gone and we had been living off the land for a few days. Most of spices were gone, as well as the staples, but we still had a liter bottle of soy sauce and of cooking oil, that had been hidden at the bottom of a food pack; and a few pounds of biscuit mix. I sent half the students off to pick berries. Raspberries, Blackberries, and June Berries; all of which were growing near our camping spot that night. The rest I split up and asked to go into the meadow and pick the biggest, fattest, best looking red clover blossoms they could find; as well as any wild onions. That night for dinner we had Red Clover fritters, some with wild onions, some plain; dipped in a sweetened and spiced soy sauce. For desert were fruit biscuits. Everyone ate until they were full, a hearty appetite the best sauce of all.

Filed Under: Wild Edibles
Tags: Cooked Greens, fritters, Red Clover, RedClover, summer, White Clover, wild edibles

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-01-2008 @8:14PM Tamara Kaye Sellman said... Wow, I never thought I'd see clover in a food blog. When we visited friends in central Oregon, we kids would go out into their wild fields and pick tons of the clover blossoms and suck the "honey" out of each of the individual flower petals. And we also used to chew on these little leaves that I now know are the scrumptious lamb's lettuce (aka corn salad or mache) that people spend beaucoup bucks for at the specialty farmer's market.

Thanks for digging up the sweet memory!

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9-02-2008 @10:14AM Mia said... I LOVE seeing posts that basically instruct me to go into my yard and pick some random weeds and cook them! I was wondering, have you ever had fried Poke weed? We have a big poke plant right by our deck and I've been trying to find the courage (and time) to fry some up.
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