Food - Drink
If You Like Spinach, Try Its Wild Cousin Lambsquarters
By LENA BECK
If you enjoy spinach, you should know that it has a wild-growing cousin that's even more nutritious and might already be in your backyard. Lambsquarters are leafy greens that can be prepared in countless ways, and their high concentration of fiber, nutrients, and vitamins E, C, and B make it even better for you than spinach.
Lambsquarters is part of the family Amaranthaceae, which includes spinach, chard, and sugar beets, and it's considered to be an invasive species in most areas around the world. The plants produce a lot of seeds and can take over a whole backyard, but you shouldn't throw them away, since the tasty leaves, stems, and seeds can all be eaten.
One of the easiest ways to eat lambsquarters is in a mixed greens salad, or you can sauté them until tender and add them to any recipes that require cooked greens. Once cooked, lambsquarters has an enjoyable mineral-like flavor similar to more common greens, and the seeds can be eaten whole or added to baked goods.
You likely won't find lambsquarters in a grocery store, but you can go foraging for them during their peak season from spring to early fall, and learn how to harvest and prepare them online. Young leaves are triangular with a thin white coating on them, while more mature leaves have a forked diamond shape and white underside.