[Sca-cooks] Borage

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Sun Jan 19 17:10:40 PST 2014


Robin Carroll-Mann / Brighid ni Chiarain wrote:
> I've been looking through a few Spanish salad recipes, and a number of them
> call for borage leaves and sometimes the flowers as well.  From what I read
> online, borage is used sometimes in Europe.  It is supposed to have a
> cucumber-like flavor. The only reference I found to it in the U.S. was some
> specialty produce-grower in California who grows it for some gourmet
> restaurant.
>
> Can anyone who's eaten it comment on the flavor and texture of borage?  Can
> anyone suggest a reasonable substitute?  The Food Thesaurus suggests
> spinach or arugula.

Borage leaves are rather... hairy, but that's not a problem when they're torn up. The flowers can also be used, they are a beautiful violet color. It's also excellent added to iced tea in the summer. Neither spinach nor arugula has a flavor at all similar to borage. I can't really think of a substitute. I might use mint, although the flavor is totally different, or lovage leaves, not that it's easy to find, either. Borage is not difficult to grow. One of my best friends grew it in her yard back in the 1970s. 

> I have similar questions about purslane.

Purslane is used in SCA-period Middle Eastern recipes (i can't recall which at the moment and i'm away from my library), as well as in modern Middle Eastern recipes. When i've seen it for sale, it had its name in Spanish, verdolagas, at the ever astonishing Berkeley Bowl. It is also called pourpier in French, and bakleh or baklih in Lebanese Arabic.

I LOVE purslane, but have only rarely seen it for sale. I got a sack full from FreeCycle when someone was cleaning up her yard. Apparently it can be somewhat weedy in a yard, if the people in the house are not eating it :-) The leaves are a bit succulent - as in the plants known as succulents - although nowhere as thick as most succulents. The flavor is tangy, slightly sour, but not terribly so. It can be used raw or cooked. I really wish i could get a regular supply.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)



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