Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café—Tumbleweed Rice

As I was working in the yard Wednesday, digging up sand and rocks and dumping it in the ditch alongside the driveway, I spotted those weeds.  I made a mental note of their location so I could harvest them later.  When I had time.  An hour or so later, I spied more of them growing next to the cherry tree in the fenced area that I hadn’t worked much on this season.  I decided today was the day to suck it up.  It was time to try eating tumbleweeds. 

I first read about people eating tumbleweeds during the Dust Bowl in Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time.  Tumbleweeds were about the only plant that could grow in the wasteland left behind when the topsoil was blown away.  And so the people gathered them and canned them. 

I have yet to find any USDA specifications for how to can tumbleweeds.  I somewhat suspect there aren’t any.  Canned tumbleweed just doesn’t sound very appetizing.

Not that fresh or sautéed tumbleweeds sounded any better.  I was really nervous about trying these out.

So I mustered up the courage and picked a huge handful of tumbleweed—Russian thistle—shoots.  You want them while they are still nice and green, and before the prickly flowers form.

I removed the roots and washed them really well.  And then had to get really brave—I popped some in my mouth.  To my surprise, they tasted pretty good.  Raw, they tasted like celery to me.  I chewed a few more.  Not bad at all. 

So it was time to try cooking them.  I decided to sauté them in a little peanut oil for a couple of minutes and then salt them.  Now they tasted like roasted asparagus to me.  Some people say they taste like spinach.  I mean, these were pretty good.  And then I think about whether I would rather eat sautéed tumbleweed shoots or canned green beans.  And it is no contest.  Canned green beans are horrible.  I’d choose tumbleweeds over canned green beans any day and every day. 

Unfortunately, no one else was home at the time I cooked the little tumbleweed shoots, so I can’t offer any of their opinions on them.  I did, however, make the following as a side to meatballs last week.

Tumbleweed Rice

4 cups tumbleweed shoots, chopped into 1” pieces  (I took this to mean 4 cups of tumbleweed shoots in the measuring cup, and then roots removed and chopped.  I ended up with about 2 cups of chopped shoots)

1 cup rice, uncooked

1 cup mustard or radish leaves, or any mild green (I used spinach because that's what I had)

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup jack or Colby jack cheese, shredded

Cook the rice and steam the tumbleweed tips or shoots for 5 minutes.  Then add the rest of the greens to the tumbleweeds.  After the greens are cooked, mix with the rice and seasonings and sprinkle with cheese.  Serve hot. 

Family reviews:  King of the Picky Eaters didn't like the "stringiness" of the tumbleweed shoots.  He would have liked them chopped more finely.  It was an unusual dish, but everyone tried it and ate it.  Buttercup ate the leftovers for lunch the next day before anyone else had a chance.  However, it takes a long time to pick that many tender tumbleweed shoots.  While I was initially inclined to let the tumbleweed shoots alone until able to harvest them for another meal, after processing just 4 cups' worth for the rice dish, I don't think I would do it again unless I had no other options.  Or minions that I could put to work.  There was absolutely nothing objectionable about eating them. 

Tumbleweed Broth

5 cups chicken broth

2 cups tumbleweed shoots

1 potato, diced

1 onion, chopped

½ cup parsley, chopped

½ cup watercress or spinach, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

Simmer the diced potato in the chicken broth.  Add in the onion and garlic and cut the tumbleweed shoots into 1” pieces.  Add the chopped onion and garlic. Cut the tumbleweed shoots into 1” pieces, and add to the broth.  Then add in the parsley, watercress or spinach, and bay leaf.  Simmer for 20 minutes or until potato is done. 

Family reviews:  We haven't tried this one yet, but I wanted to have the recipe here for future reference. :)

Tumbleweeds are a good source of magnesium, calcium, and vitamin A and provide pretty good fiber and protein.  Like spinach, tumbleweed is somewhat high in oxalates and some people are allergic to it.  It would be best to test it out in small quantities before going whole hog on it. 

During the Dust Bowl, some ranchers survived by feeding it to their cattle.  The cattle survived, too, until butchering time. 

Links to related posts:

The Worst Hard Time  

The Medicinal Uses of Russian Thistle

References:

https://sbcsentinel.com/2015/08/the-edible-poisonous-tumbleweed-russian-thistle-salsola-tragus/

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/nvpmcpg13347.pdf

https://www.treehugger.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-tumbleweeds-4864166

06.30.24