Stir fry of wild greens and buds with tamari marinated tofu.

Sometimes simplicity is best. At this time of the year the wild greens and new buds are crunchy and delicious, perfect for eating in a simple stir fry.

Our wild ingredients for this dish were Hogweed buds, Goat’s beard buds, Rosebay willowherb, Thistle stems, chickweed and a few nettles. These were all washed and stir fried with Tamari marinated tofu and Tamari sauce.

There really is no recipe for this; it is just as easy as it sounds. Some great wild ingredients and good Japanese soya sauce cooked in a very hot wok. What could be easier! The mixture of tastes and textures work really well together and create a great dish.

We served the vegetable stir fry with Duck marinated in Sorrel and Water pepper, Vietnamese spring rolls with Ground elder and Thistle with wild Horseradish oil, miso soup, tempura of Ox-eye daisy and Wild garlic . A woodland banquet!

Goat’s beard Tragapogon pratensis can be found in meadows and verges as well as some woodland edges and glades. The yellow flowers close in the late morning giving it the name ‘jack go to bed at noon’ in some parts of the UK. The leaf is long and grass-like with tall flowering stems. You can harvest the flower buds in early summer but be careful not to pick the seed pods as these look similar and contain a very unappetising bundle of hairy seeds.

Cook the buds by steaming or stir frying.