Serves 4-5 | Prep time – 45 mins (includes time to make balsamic reduction) | Cook time – 10 mins

Balsamic reduction

Ingredients

• 200ml of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp of honey
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

Place all ingredients into a small sized saucepan, slowly simmer on a very low heat for 15 minutes or until mixture has reduced by half – should be left with a dark sweet syrup, lightly flavoured by the garlic.

This recipe will give you more than enough to use for one salad, so store remainder of your reduction in a small jar, keeping the garlic in, which will flavour the vinegar beautifully with time.

Salad

Ingredients

• 3 large handfuls of foraged chickweed,
• 2 large handfuls of foraged mallow leaves, torn
• 1 large beurre bosc pear, sliced into thin pieces
• ⅓ cup of hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 ½ tbsp of balsamic reduction, or to taste
• drizzle of olive oil
• cracked pepper to season

Wash and dry weeds, softly tear mallow leaves into pieces and remove any of the large thicker stems from the chickweed. Place into a large salad bowl, toss through pear slices, hazel nuts, drizzle with a little olive oil and the balsamic reduction.

Toss together, season with cracked pepper and serve.

—

Foraging tip: Don’t eat anything you aren’t entirely sure of what it is! Some weeds are poisonous. Do your research – this website is a good place to start. Always make sure the area you are harvesting from hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals. Dog piss is also a concern in public areas! Always rinse your weeds before eating….