Orach(e) - Ingredients - Eat Your Books

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#1 Posted : Sunday, August 4, 2019 5:28:19 PM(UTC)

Does anyone know anything about a green called orach or oracle? Apparently it is sometimes also called wild mountain spinach although it isn’t a spinach. I googled it since it doesn’t appear in any of my vegetable books and found an NYT article about it but I was curious to know if anyone else had run across it and how you used it.

#2 Posted : Monday, August 5, 2019 9:18:47 AM(UTC)

The Book of Greens by Jenn Louis and Kathleen Squires has a recipe for Pierogi with red orach. They describe orach as a member of the amaranth family, sometimes called mountain spinach or giant lambs quarters with a flavor like spinach. They explain that orach was much more commonly eaten than spinach until the Persians began cultivating spinach. Red orach used to be used to color pasta in Italy. In addition to red, there are green, purple, white, and yellow varieties. They suggest using it in salads or with pasta, rice, potatoes and pairing it with garlic, fennel, fish, and lamb. I've seen it sold in Boston area farmers markets by a central Massachusetts farm Flats Mentor, which supports small farmers of many ethnicities, mostly immigrants and refugees who grow the foods of their native regions. So they sell all kinds of greens, EDIT: most of which I'd *NEVER* seen before, including pumpkin vines, huckleberry greens, amaranth, purslane, several kinds of spinaches, etc., and many other vegetables, some years fresh lemongrass.

#3 Posted : Monday, August 5, 2019 12:26:42 PM(UTC)

I grow Orach in my garden.  So far my two plants are about 1-2 ft. tall.  The bugs seem to love it!!


We haven't eaten it yet.

#4 Posted : Monday, August 5, 2019 3:05:26 PM(UTC)

Vegetable books in my collection in which it does appear in include: (1)  River Cottage A to Z: Our Favourite Ingredients, & How to Cook Them (2) The Vegetable Butcher: How to Select, Prep, Slice, Dice, and Masterfully Cook Vegetables from Artichokes to Zucchini (3) Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference, 500 Recipes and 275 Photographs (4) From the Earth: World's Great, Rare and Almost Forgotten Vegetables (5) The Book of Greens: A Cook's Compendium of 40 Varieties, from Arugula to Watercress, with More Than 175 Recipes


So I think of it as one of the greens that is similar to sorrel in the sense of being one one hears about as "formerly used" but have to grow yourself or know the right person to be able to actually try.  And we don't mention how poorly my garden is doing this year. Note that where I live the uncommon vegetables that are available are Pacific Rim vegetables rather than European.

#5 Posted : Wednesday, August 7, 2019 9:17:43 PM(UTC)

I grow both a purple and green variety in my garden. I just finally pulled up my plants because they're about seven feet tall and flowering beautifully. The greens are tasty - not as tannic as spinach - but the bolted plants and flowers are so stunning I just want to look at them.

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