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#spinach #greens
Spring is the season of green, when Mother Earth knows it’s time to internally cleanse and so offers us an abundance of purifying greens in all textures and flavors. There are mustard greens, garlic greens, savoy greens, fenugreek, chicory, sorrel, spinach, chard, kale, water cress, purslane, every kind of brassica, and opportunities to forage for wild edibles right in your own local canyons and forests where you might find medicinals such as leeks, nettles and dandelions.

Sour, pungent, astringent and bitter, in varying degrees, are the tastes of Spring. Pungent greens increase digestion and circulation, aiding the body in warming up and “melting off” the cold freeze, or stagnation, of winter. Sour also aids digestion, elimination and circulation. Astringent dries and tones. Bitter is perhaps the least popular, but most important of Spring’s tastes. Made up of the elements of air and apace, foods with the bitter taste help the body detoxify, purify, lighten up, loosen up and open up the inner channels for optimal flow. Bitter tasting herbs help you eliminate waste, fight colds, reduce allergies and lose weight.

Traditional cultures instinctively knew the benefits of Spring’s bitter-tasting bounty, cultivating wonderful, easy, nourishing, home-cooked savory pies and tartes out of a variety of these free, foraged greens. From France, Italy, Greece, and my own back yard, here are 7 delicious ways to go green this Spring ~

#Gourmed_spinach pie

Photo: Gourmed.com

1. Spinach and Greens Pie (Vegan)

2. Spicy Mustard Green Pesto (Vegan)

3. Spinach, Nettles and Dandelion Tart from Provence (Vegetarian)

4. Nettle Spiral Pie (Vegan)

5. Gourmed’s Orirginal Spanakopita (Vegetarian)

6. Sign up for my annual Spring Cleanse, an easy, at-home, three-week, guided course to nourish your body to release toxins, old material, and stagnation, to restore youthful vitality, mental clarity and luminous radiance.

#dandelion

Photo: Traditional Medicinals

7. Drink Dandelion Tea. You can make it yourself with the roots and shoots of the plant harvested from any organic lawn or garden. To make it easy though, you could try Traditional Medicinals‘ newly launched dandelion teas which they sent to me to try, and which they will send to one of you as a free gift. 

“Dandelion has become increasingly popular recently for its ability to support the body’s natural detoxification process,” says the company literature. “With the trend only growing, Traditional Medicinals herbalists formulated two new dandelion teas that will be hitting store shelves this spring – EveryDay Detox Dandelion and Dandelion Leaf & Root.
  • EveryDay Detox Dandelion* – inspired by a classic European herbal formula, is a blend of dandelion, licorice, fennel, and peppermint help stimulate the liver while providing support to the kidneys.
  • Dandelion Leaf & Root* – From roots to shoots, this enjoyably mild and sweet tea includes supports kidney function and healthy digestion.”
I love licorice, fennel and peppermint in tea, so I loved the first tea. I did not find any of the ascribed sweet in the second. “Leaf & Root” tastes pretty bitter to me. Then again, bitter is good. It’s the taste of detoxification, after all ~ and the taste that quickly cuts sugar cravings.
Rather than drink it as a tea, I brewed a strong half cup of the Dandelion Leaf & Root and added it to a sautée of spinach and kale, pictured below. With ginger, cardamom, a dash each of cinnamon and nutmeg, a sprinkle of fresh lemon juice and the dandelion infusion, these greens are a potent, and deliciously, detoxifying agent. Just home from India, it’s my daily nourishment.
#kale
Want to try some dandelion tea? Please let us know in the comment section below. There is a limited supply, so we’ll pick names (blindly and randomly, of course!) by week’s end and let you know. If you comment anonymously, it’s fine. But please know we won’t be able to contact you, and won’t have your shipping address to send you your teas.
Meanwhile, I invite you to try Traditional Medicinals’ Plant Personality Quiz. It’s fun, remarkably accurate, and another reminder that nature is a mirror, a beautiful biosphere, and that you are an integral part of it.
To your pure, whole being ~ May it be alive in a most vibrant (human) vehicle this Spring, with the energy, clarity, and wakefulness needed in order to know the beauty, magnificence and star-bedazzled interconnnectedness of all that is. Namaste!
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