How to Harvest & Cook Garlic Mustard Shoots - Wild Edible Recipes

Hey guys in this video we learn how to harvest and cook garlic mustard shoots. This is an easy wild edible recipe that only takes just a few minutes to make and gives you a hearty asparagus like vegetable. A lot of people know of eating garlic mustard raw but the young tender shoots make a delicious wild vegetable. Growing in yards and lawns garlic mustard has white flowers and tastes slightly like garlic, the shoots taste very much like asparagus and are easy to incorporate into any normal recipe. The liquid that is left from boiling them even makes a delicious broth for soups and stews.
To harvest the shoots of garlic mustard find a flowering top and run your finger down the stem until you reach the base of the plant. You will notice little hairs on the stem and you want to pinch the stem right above these hairs to have the most tender portions. Then, just like with asparagus, trim off an additional inch and what's left will be good to eat. After trimming simply boil for five to eight minutes until tender. While cooking check the biggest shoot with a fork for tenderness. These are delicious plain or with a little salt and garlic. Some might prefer butter but I find it throws the taste off too much for me. However this is an easy down and dirty recipe to get you acquainted with cooking garlic mustard shoots.
I thank you for watching this video I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something. If you want to learn more about edible or medicinal plants make sure to subscribe!
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[@jeanneriegler8687]

I love garlic mustard! I get it every spring. I never tried the shoots. I use the leaves and flower buds and little white flowers in salads. Also used them in soups and the leaves in sandwiches. The roots are delicious too! Taste like horseradish.

[@gloriagrenci8937]

How do you prepare the root?

[@jeanneriegler8687]

@@gloriagrenci8937 I just scrub it clean and chop it up. I have eaten it as is, put in salad or thrown into soup. It is a mild, horseradish flavor so wherever you would want that type of flavor. Garlic mustard is one if my favorites to forage. Just make sure not to take any from the side of the road where it would be getting exhaust fumes... make sure the place you take it from doesn't have pesticides sprayed upon it also. If private land that isn't yours, get permission... Here where I live, it has been ready to harvest for well over a week now. ; )

[@gloriagrenci8937]

@@jeanneriegler8687 thanks for your reply, will definitely try it

[@jeanneriegler8687]

@@gloriagrenci8937 I hope you enjoy it!

[@johnvanegmond1812]

Yes!!! The broth. Often times I'll put broth in the fridge and drink it cold. Sometimes a little dirt or grit will be in the last teaspoon so I drink it all except the last sip.

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Hmmm....interesting, I've never thought to just drink the broth straight. I do that with chicken broth all the time, definitely trying this out. Thanks for the tip!

[@runly1]

Thanks for the cooking lesson. I've been eating these for decades, just nibbling along as I walk in the woods. Absolutely love the flavor. Must try this way, too.

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I do the same thing walking in the woods. I also pull as much as I can because it's highly invasive where I live so it's like a smorgasbord of garlic mustard all the time! Thanks for commenting!

[@chris2162003]

Invasive our whole area covered by it. We reroot them when we harvest. Plenty of it around.

[@Sofia-jz9hj]

Just tried this and found it super tasty, thanks!

[@countrychickbrews4640]

I just found this video. Im gathering my basket and going foraging!!!

[@Humble-Daniel]

I've never tasted garlic mustard yet but I'm definitely looking forward to it. I absolutely love garlic and mustard, so it should be a favorite for me I think. Lol.

[@zeroflight6867]

This is great too know. Just started to get into foraging and decided to double-check cooking options for these things. Around here, it's everywhere. As in literally multiple hundreds of individual plants just along a 2 mile stretch of my walking path. I swear it's in a battle with the nearby dandelions on which can be more invasive.

[@emmyjoyful1]

you can eat the dandelions, too!!

[@zeroflight6867]

@@emmyjoyful1 there's also wild carrot and curly dock interspersed in there, so sounds like a salad to me. There are a few others in the same patch but most aren't edible until later in the year. So some should be ready soon.

[@rparnaby3843]

BAZINGA!!! The Flavor is Right ON!!!

[@ianmanning4062]

Love the lesson on cooking this one! But a quick note, when you're harvesting this aggressive invasive plant, you should be pulling the whole root system out of the ground. It is not in short supply anywhere you go and removing as many plants as possible is a good practice with this species.

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

I do pull the roots out, usually after I've harvested from it a couple times but before it goes to seed. In the wild though I pull them up regardless. This was in my yard so I can keep close eye on it.

[@triumphmanful]

Just found out what this was growing in my garden. I just kept yanking it out very spring. Now I pulled a bunch and sautayed the tops (leaves & flowers). Very tasty but the stems were a bit chewy. I put on S&P , butter too. All those vitamins made me want more ! Thanks

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Absolutely! Glad it was helpful to you! The stems can get tougher with age, in my neck of the country it's a little late to be eating this much of them, but they are so delicious!

[@davidfiekowsky4892]

I have a love hate relationship with garlic mustard as it does infiltrate habitat and hold back morel production, but it's easy to ID without worry, simple to use, and nutritious.

[@cjd5255]

Always awesome videos! So descriptive. I was wondering if u would use the water. That's even better! Thanks again 💖🌱🙏

[@c4manke]

Found 2 growing in my elevated garden bed, I'll be sure to harvest them prior to seed. Great info, thanks.

[@charlesfredrick4789]

I like harvesting the seeds in the fall. Delicious on a pan seared steak

[@deanframe9095]

Thank you!

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

You're welcome!

[@cookwithme414]

I’ make pickled taste so good !

[@rubytuby6369]

Picked a lot last year it was delicious especially the stems.

[@lieblee3063]

Asian people we pickle them, somewhat like a Korean kimchi except we use salt and rice water.

[@shelly7017]

I would love to learn more about how to prepare them.

[@TheWoodsrow]

What is the recipe too pickel? If you don't mind I would like to try . Thank you😊

[@guacre2675]

@@TheWoodsrow To pickle just about anything is almost the same. Do more research because 1) I'm not an expert and 2) this is a concise KZbin comment, but you slice up almost any (edible) vegetable *raw,* and pack it into a container like a jar or whatever. Then fully submerge in a mixture of 1 cup water to 1 teaspoon of salt (iodized or whatever does not matter. It only makes the brine a little cloudy, but is not bad) and make sure 100% of your veggie stays underwater. Then let the natural lactic acid bacteria do their thing for 2 weeks & enjoy

[@Susileedean]

Thank you for the advice. That sounds really good

[@overratedprogrammer]

I'm gonna try just sauteeing them as I would asparagus. Will report back

[@wendyfoster9232]

thanks for that - i came across these this morning so i collected a few which are now drying out to herb - i sure do want to learn more so i have subbed - thanks again

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

You're very welcome!

[@joeymeraz]

That's exactly the best way to enjoy it... 😎

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Sure is! Thanks for commenting Joseph!

[@nikkiblack5073]

You rock learning sooooo much from You thanks

[@mashdemdown]

Thank you 🙏🏾

[@bohdaj]

very good, thanks

[@vigouroso]

There may be too much garlic mustard in Toronto, from a biodiversity standpoint.

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Not surprising, I think there's too much of it everywhere I go. It wreaks havoc on native plants and ecosystems. It's possible for this plant to cover acres in a matter of several years. It contains natural herbicides that kill off surrounding vegetation, especially native plants like, Trilliums, Spring Beauties, Trout Lillies and more. I pull it up and eat it when I can. Each time making sure to fully kill the root as it can grow from a piece of root. Thank you for commenting William!

[@FringeWizard2]

@@TrilliumWildEdibles I just grasp it with my hand and pull the whole thing up roots and all and shake off the access dirt and take it with me. There's no garlic mustard weed around my house because I ended up harvesting it all so now I have to walk a fair bit to find it. If everyone would just eat these plants we could eradicate them.

[@wolfenstein6676]

It's a self-regulating plant, you don't need to keep uprooting it. It produces certain chemical when it's young, to give it a head start on other plant species in that area, after some years it stops producing those chemicals and all the native species can return.

[@jojo-zt7eo]

Thank you. Going to try this.

[@sherjack7283]

It looks delicious 😋

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

It absolutely was, thanks for commenting!

[@mirian593]

Thank you for sharing 😃

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

You're very welcome!

[@moochythecat3435]

I weed whacked about a million garlic mustard plants about 2 weeks ago... I pulled about 20,000 of them over the past 2 weeks... Now I'm going to pull a few of them and cook them just to see what they taste like... Didn't see any garlic mustard on my property until 5 years ago... Now it's everywhere....

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Just fyi, if you live in the U.S. it's best to pull up by the roots because it's highly invasive here, and it's best to do it before it gets to seed because it produces a lot of seeds.

[@Charlie-zy1hg]

I've got a lot this growing in my yard, I'll have to try cooking some. Thanks. Totally off topic but I have never seen kitchen cabinets with the knob in the center of the door panel. Not sure where you are located but is that common in your part of the world?

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

You're very welcome! I live in Central Indiana and this was a rental property. Usually a knob in the center of a door panel is indicative of an older cabinet set, often from the 1980s or 1990s, common in rentals because it's cheap and widely available. Of course that could be a midwest thing or a U.S thing I'm not sure. I do know in all the places I've lived it's about 50/50 on where they are located. There's really no standard here for that.

[@itsgettingold]

Our kitchen was done over about 50 or 60 years ago & the cupboard pulls are in the centers. I think it was just a common style in the later 20th c.; don't think it is/was particularly regional.

[@stevegreenwood7837]

Hi, my understanding & insight is that boiling reduces vitamin C content more than any other cooking method. Broccoli, spinach, and lettuce may lose up to 50% or more of their vitamin C when boiled, Because vitamin C is water-soluble and sensitive to heat, it can leach out of vegetables when they're immersed in hot water.

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Well yeah but if you try to eat these shoots raw you're in for a bad time because they are very tough and fibrous. I'm sure they could be steamed but I've never tried it On vitamin C, it's a very common nutrient that is in so many foods it's really a non issue when boiling, especially on things that need boiled to be edible.

[@brendahartstern4565]

Would the vitamin c leach into the water to use in soup anyway?

[@MoFilmsHD]

Nice video the garlic mustard is growing fast by you what I think is garlic mustard looks like a first year plant but can you make a video on how to identify wild garlic or onion where I live is so common if you go miles out you will still find it. the "wild garlic" looks like garlic with single garlics on each small bulb

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

I've thought about doing an actual identification video on those, I just assumed they were so common knowledge there wasn't a need to do one...however it sounds like a great idea. They are every where where I live as well, the garlic I find usually has a bunch of tiny little cloves on it, maybe around 15-25 or so. While strong as it can be flavorwise, it is tedious to peel those little baby cloves. Thanks fro the idea, and your comment!

[@MoFilmsHD]

Trillium: Wild Edibles thanks and I was by a river the other day looking for some plant and after I got In the car I found a tick on my pants probably the most scary moment but how do you avoid ticks and it makes me wonder how the Native Americans also avoided them

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

I would assume the Natives used a mixture of plants like sage, mint, etc. to keep ticks and bugs off. I'm not sure though about what plants they used. I know in the old days bear fat was used to help keep bugs off, so maybe some plants rendered into some bear fat but as far as specifics I have no clue. For me personally I just wear shorts and usually light colored clothing. This allows me to see the ticks on my legs plus shirt and feel them as pants make them harder to feel because of friction. Another thing that helps is to wash off in unscented hunting soap before going out to remove human odors. Other than that I use nothing for ticks and bugs and rarely have issues. Though I remember one time I went camping for two days and came home and had a tick embedded in my left hip, a burning cigarette and a wood gouger got him out, but man that really sucked! Also there is going to be a little about this in the Q&A video coming up as well as a video here in the next month or so on ticks and bugs. Thanks for asking and I hope this helps a bit!

[@MoFilmsHD]

Trillium: Wild Edibles ok thanks

[@diannajackson2966]

omg I threw that part out....smh. glad I saw this.

[@genedouglas6445]

How about a little olive oil and lemon juice.

[@kleineroteHex]

ours is not even really up must go visit my daughter soon, she has lots 😊 nice video and explanation

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

It would depend on what part of the country you are in, right now all my garlic mustard is in flowering mode. The ones deep in the woods though are just starting to gain stems. Thanks for commenting! Good luck and hope you get a lot of it!

[@FringeWizard2]

It doesn't matter just harvest it even when it's very young.

[@Ursaminor31]

It’s less delicious then I thought, but not terrible. I’ll try again this spring

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Yeah it's not really strong in flavor per se. It's one of those you just kinda accept as it is.

[@VivaMarie]

My garlic mustard plants are not very close to this size... They're pretty much just leaves about an inch or two from the ground. Can I still eat them like you have shown?

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

If they are just leaves then it is still in the basal rosette stage. It's still highly edible but it's not recommended to boil the leaves because they can get more bitter after boiling. The leaves are edible raw and are great in salads, sandwiches, wraps, pesto, and salad dressings. I have a couple videos on my channel about using the leaves of garlic mustard you can find in the playlist titled: Preparing Wild Edibles. Hope this helps some and thanks for asking Vivian!

[@VivaMarie]

@@TrilliumWildEdibles Thank you! That's actually really helpful! I'll check out your videos as well.

[@garybaxter7297]

have you tried pan sauté in olive oil ? then seasoning

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

No, I have not actually. Not one for olive oil but I love sunflower oil so I'll give it a whirl when I get the chance. It sounds good, thanks for the tips Gary!

[@corniss]

Can you eat the leaves.

[@ChristopherJones16]

Doesn’t boiling these wild edibles destroy the good nutrients ?

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

The shoots of Garlic Mustard have to be cooked because it softens them up a lot making them more palatable. Wild edibles are like veggies you'd buy from the store. While many can be eaten raw, some of them must be cooked. The leaves of Garlic Mustard however are completely fine raw so I never cook those. Hope this helps and thanks for asking Christopher!

[@senatorjosephmccarthy2720]

Heating them to 140° F kills the live enzymes.

[@sarahpratt8619]

I've enjoyed a few of this guy's videos....but all I hear is Dale Gribble...

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Glad you're enjoying the videos Sarah! Do I really sound like Dale Gribble? That's a first for me, lol! Either way thanks for commenting!

[@sarahpratt8619]

Haha yes! Love your info, it's already helping me to become a backyard forager. Will be watching many more :)

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Awesome, I'm glad to hear it Sarah!

[@trex1448]

Dude sautee them...

[@poconobarmaley]

Was it your breakfast or dinner?

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Mid day snack technically.

[@garland978]

Can this part of the plant be eaten raw?

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

It can be gnawed at some sections because it can be kind of tough raw, however the closer you get towards the top of the plant; stems, flowers, and buds can be eaten raw. My favorite part is the very top two inches or so because in my experience it usually has the most garlic flavor there. I frequently nibble the top two inches or so in the woods and use it as garnishes, as well as include some in sauces, spreads, or dressings. Hope this helps a bit and thanks for asking Garland!

[@briancomber8371]

I’m pretty sure this is what I have in my backyard. How can I be 100% sure?

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

I have a video on my channel titled: How to Identify Garlic Mustard that should be of some help.

[@paperart4708]

I picked them before but they were bitter that I could not enjoy them... I wish I found one that not so bitter

[@Pureconception]

If it's consistently hot outside, like midsummer, they grow bitter as a more mature plant. Right now is a perfect time for harvest

[@paperart4708]

pureconception I was in Massachusetts during springtime .. still early spring ..I found them with ramp and morel ... about 1-5 c’ in March to April ..not sure why it’s bitter Thanks for your information

[@Pureconception]

@@paperart4708 really interesting... Hmm not sure

[@saraswatkin9226]

Steaming it would be better .

[@dankfrank728]

Are the stems edible raw? (Washed with anti bacteria obviously)

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Yes and no. Yes as in they aren't harmful but texture may not be pleasant as they can be kind of tough. Sort of like a young twig in texture, though closer to the top of the plant might not be so tough. Hope this helps and thanks for asking Diamond Pig!

[@goosecouple]

This "weed" is everywhere in my backyard.

[@lieblee3063]

I think you overcook that. A couple of minutes would have been plenty.

[@abcxyz9643]

Mine are always so damned bitter. I make it every year and never really care for it. Maybe I need to boil it out like this. Although I can't believe that broth tastes good due to the bitterness lol.

[@jeanneriegler8687]

If bitter, you must be picking it too late...

[@abcxyz9643]

@@jeanneriegler8687 Too bitter at all stages of growth that I have tried. First year rosette, second year flower stalks, everywhere in between. Too bitter picked in the middle of winter, the spring, and clearly the summer lol. I think its a preparation issue, not picking too late.

[@noreaster4194]

What i've noticed and as Josh pointed out in his identification video. The bitterness can vary drastically depending on where it's growing.

[@Ursaminor31]

I’m more of nettle kind of guy

[@TrilliumWildEdibles]

Understandable, they are quite good! I enjoy the subtle flavors of garlic mustard shoots but it's great to eat to keep it from spreading because it's highly invasive.

[@jeanpauldupuis]

60-120 seconds in a hot pan with oil.

[@lilyli2460]

sorry，I don't like it. It tastes too bitter hard to swallow。

[@FringeWizard2]

Usually if you pick a plant younger or pick just the tips of it, those parts are less bitter. Older plants or the part near the base are more bitter.

[@danieldang2a31]

Salt raises blood preasure (the body's way of ridding itself of excess salt) and milk (the butter) is designed to help turn a calf into a large 500 or so pound cow..

[@rick5653]

Boy that sure doesn’t look very appetizing. I bet it was a good video happened to your cooking part