Lambs Quarters

Today I present another nutritional powerhouse: lambs quarters! The guy at the farmers market referred to it as wild spinach, and it wasn't until I looked it up that I realized this was the wild green I'd so often read about but always forgot to look for at the market. Lambs quarters are basically a weed that goes for $1 a bundle at normal farmers' markets. Hit up a fancy shopping arena like the Ferry Building, however, and I'm sure you're paying anywhere from $3-6 for the same handful of greens.

Weed status notwithstanding, lambs quarters are one of nature's super foods. They are more nutrient dense than regular spinach, and rank up there with nettles and purslane as being ridiculously chock full of vitamins, antioxidants, and so on--wild vegetables are just better for you, there's no two ways about it. Excited by our new find, we sauteed a huge bunch of these in sage and garlic brown butter and ate it with rice and some sauteed mushrooms. See? I told you we are practically vegan these days.

*photo courtesy of modernbeet.com