How To Dry Purslane and Turn It To A Powder
Purslane. My new favorite edible weed. If you missed my post on just how incredibly nutritious this herb is, you’d better go catch up!
After discovering this super food in my garden, I decided to let it go crazy in one of my empty raised beds. And boy did it go crazy! I had fun experimenting with it before it came time to clear out the bed to make room for my new raspberry bushes.
Purslane makes a great thickening agent, much like cornstarch. Here’s how to turn it into a super-food powder to add to your favorite soups, stews, gravies or even shakes!
First, pick a bunch of healthy looking purslane. I like to pick herbs early in the morning before the sun has come out and dried the leaves.
Wash the leaves well. You wouldn’t want any dirt or bugs in your powder. Then spread them out onto a towel to dry.
Pull the leaves off of the stems, and place them single layer on a dehydrator rack, or on a cookie sheet if drying in the oven. This would make a great activity for children to help with. Discard the stems, or feed them to your chickens.
You’ll need a mesh screen or something similar to keep the leaves from falling through the trays after they’ve dried.
I used the ‘fruits and vegetables’ drying setting on my dehydrator, since these leaves are very succulent. That temperature is 135*. If using an oven, set it to the lowest setting possible, and keep an eye on the purslane to make sure it doesn’t burn. It took about 12 hours to dry completely. It should be brittle, indicating that it is done.
Next, place the dried leaves in a food processor or blender, and process until it turns to a powder.
Mine turned out to be a course powder, but that was just fine. I stored it in an empty spice jar. You’ll need a lot of purslane to make a significant amount of powder. The first time I experimented with this process, I only filled one dehydrator tray with leaves; I got about 1 1/2 Tbsp of powder from this amount.
The flavor of the dried purslane reminds me of dried parsley. It’s very mild and nice. I used my powdered purslane in a bean soup last night in the place of cornstarch, and it thickened up very nicely. I am anxious to make a lot more for regular use in my kitchen.
Have you ever dried purslane? What’s your favorite way to use it?
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I sure wish I would have known about this during the summer! We just moved to our new farm but our old place had a ton of Purslane and Lamb’s Quarter. I hope we have some here but so far we haven’t seen any. Maybe next year when we get the garden going. I’ll definitely keep this in mind. Thanks!
This is brilliant!
We are on a grain/dairy/sugar-free diet and this would be great to use in place of cornstarch! Hubby likes gravies and thick soups. I will have to find out where to get some to plant next year to dry.
Thank you for posting this!
Oh my goodness…we have this in our flower beds already! (I just read the post from back in May.) Hubby has been trying to kill it all year! So…I will pull some up and put them in a planter to grow in a more confined area. Again – THANK YOU!
Awesome, Meg!! That’s great news
Missy,
Maybe it’ll pop up at your new place
Would love to be able to try this. Maybe if I find any and get the courage to do so.
I am always afraid I will miss identify something, and someone may get sick.
Thanks for your wonderful post!
LindaG,
It’s definitely important to correctly identify a plant before consuming it, but don’t be intimidated! Purslane is one of the easiest things to positively identify
The internet is a wonderful source for helping one to identify a plant through close-ups and thorough descriptions. You can do it!!
Good way to not have gmo corn in my food, using purslane instead of cornstarch.
Sounds awesome! That’s great that you can use it for corn starch! Our purslane did really well this spring, but got eaten up the rest of the year. I kept thinking another plant would pop up and take the last ones place and better that than our other more “prized” veggies, but the new plants kept getting eaten too. I do still have a bag in the freezer, although I don’t think it’s enough to make much dried. I should probably just use it as is in soup or stir fry. Thank you for your awesome suggestions!
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