We picked up some local burdock root last week. I’m familiar with it from my herbal medicine study, which recommends burdock for clearing congestion in the circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory and urinary systems. But I was fascinated to read that it could be eaten raw or cooked as well!

Burdock gets its name from its burrs, which inspired the invention of Velcro, and “dock,” a name common to plants with a certain leaf shape. Because it is a taproot, it digs deeply into soil and brings up nutrients from deeper than shallow-rooted plants. Medicinally, burdock is used as a blood purifying agent, an excellent tonic for spring.

The first adventure came peeling the roots. I heard that scrubbing them was sufficient, but because they were narrow, I only managed to scrub my fingers. I tried a vegetable peeler, but the soft roots had too much “give.” The method I finally used was the “whittle” method. If you’ve ever had to sharpen a pencil without a mechanical sharpener, you are familiar with the whittle method.

I cut them into 2-inch lengths, just long enough to get a taste without committing to a lengthy string, and put them into cold water as they were peeled. I was thinking this might crisp them up, like a carrot, but as the water turned muddy (along with the creamy white roots) I did a little more research. A touch of vinegar or lemon juice keeps the root from browning, just like one would do with apple.

The taste of the root before soaking was very tannic, but once it came out of the water it was much less so. It was also very reminiscent of jicama. If you haven’t tried jicama, and can find it reasonably locally, you should, it’s yummy. We think it tastes like the love child of an apple and a potato! Burdock tasted much the same, but needed just a little more chewing than jicama. We had the first batch raw.

My next experiment was to cook the julienned roots. I cooked them very slowly in butter with some parsnips, here cut into rounds. They were very chewy, and the sweetness was much less pronounced.

My conclusion? If burdock grew wild here, it would be a great addition to a foraging menu. I don’t have garden space to commit to it, though, and we weren’t so taken with it that we will be purchasing it on a regular basis. It is a bit labor-intensive in preparation as well, making burdock root a rare treat instead of daily fare.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted this week by Cheeseslave.