Ground Ivy foraging and recipes

There is  some Ground Ivy growing  happily in our garden, under a rose bush , and occasionally I pick a few leaves and add to salads or soup stock as well as dry some for medicinal use ( it`s said to be great for colds  and congestion and it has many more therapeutic qualities)

Culinary use
In France it`s been used for centuries, usually  added to cheese giving  it a very distinctive  flavour ( something between  mint and rosemary/thyme ) as well as served with meat dishes ( you may want to visit Cooking Fairy website for more details regarding foraging and identification) . It`s said to complement the taste of beef and lamb dishes. Also can be used to make salsa verde added to spring lamb salad.
Also used in confectionery (Cake decorating and sugar craft) dusted with sugar or sprayed with sugarspray)

This particular recipe  comes from  Eat Weeds and it does what it says!



Ground Ivy Tempura

Ingredients

• 2 handfuls of Ground Ivy leaves
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tbsp of cornflour  ( we only used plain flour)
• 1 egg
• 300ml of cold water
• 100g rapeseed oil
• Soya sauce and/or honey
• Salt

Suggested Instructions

1. Separate out the Ground Ivy leaves.
2. In a chilled bowl, mix together the plain flour and cornflour, egg and cold water and a pinch of salt until you have a thin batter.
3. Heat the oil until it is very hot, then fry Ground Ivy leaves until lightly crisped, remove and drain on kitchen paper.
4. Serve with soya sauce or honey

(  this time we served it all sweet, dusted with a little fruit sugar /icing sugar)