A new-to-us green: salad burnet

One of our neighbors gave us this plant last summer, but I didn't use it until this spring. I planted it in the center of our vegetable garden with other herbs. This spring, and now summer, I've been using it regularly.

Technically, salad burnet is an herb. However many people use it as a leafy vegetable, in greater quantity per dish than would be used by most herbs.

It is perennial and overwinters in the garden in zones 4 through 10, but can survive lower temperatures (zone 3) with a leaf mulch. Salad burnet can also be grown as an annual. It prefers cooler weather, making it a great addition to spring and early summer meals and beverages in my area.

It's habit is a rosette form comprised of thin stems with multiple toothed, coin-sized leaves along each side of the stem. It's these small leaves that are used in cooking.

Salad burnet has a mild cucumber flavor and is used in salads, mixed into cottage cheese, blended with cream  cheese or butter to use as a sandwich spread, mixed with plain yogurt, sour cream, and/or mayo for a dip, in cold soups, in flavored water, and in herb vinegars. Its delicate flavor is best preserved when used in the raw form. However, it can be added to hot dishes like soup or scrambled eggs, just at the last minute. I've used the whole leaves in salads, but the leaves will impart more flavor to spreads and dips if chopped.

I've been using it primarily in salads. We like it in leafy green tossed salads. Tonight I also used a large handful in potato salad. 

To use, you pick whole stems, then pluck off the individual leaves and discard the stems.

Nutritionally, salad burnet contains bioflavonoids and polyphenols like quercetin and caffeic acid. It is antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. And it also contains Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and some of the B vitamins as well as iron and potassium.

Plants can be started from seeds or cuttings. My neighbor started a flat of salad burnet from seeds for a garden sale and gave me one of her leftover plants. It did well last summer and could have been used, but I didn't yet know how to best use it. We did taste it, however, and thought the cucumber flavor was pleasant.

Like other herbs, salad burnet will eventually flower then go to seed. I've been removing the flower buds this month to prolong the production of leafy stems. 

A good-to-know thing -- it's not invasive, but will spread through self-seeding.

I wanted to share about salad burnet because it's a lesser known garden addition, but one that my family is enjoying.

Rhubarb Slab Tart

Part slab pie, part pop tart 

slab tart just out of the oven and before cutting into 12 equal squares.

If you remember, one of my summer budget activities was to bake more fruit pies. I think this qualifies.

Saturday was a very rainy day. There was no chance I would be able to work in the garden or even want to. So I chose to spend the day in the kitchen. One of the foods that I made was a 5-crust batch of pie pastry. I froze 3 portions in 5-inch diameter disks and used the other 2 portions in this rhubarb slab tart.

While the pastry was chilling, I quickly (and briefly -- I didn't want the rhubarb to fall apart) cooked 3 fat stalks of rhubarb, diced, in some water, then added cornstarch to thicken and 1/4 cup of granulated sugar to sweeten. After cooling, the thickened rhubarb filling was ready for the pastry. I used a shallow baking pan, about 10 X 13 inches. The pastry was sealed along the edges, but I didn't do anything fancy with crimping. I baked the tart until it looked lightly golden.

This is a breakfast version of pie, like having a healthier pop tart. It's lower in added sugar than pie -- just over 1 teaspoon of added sugar in each serving. And I made the pastry with part whole wheat flour. Despite this good stuff, it does contain a fair amount of fat in the pastry and could possibly be made lower in fat with less pastry. 

As a dessert, each serving is less fat and calories than a standard slice of pie, as my two-crust slab tart was divided into 12 portions after baking. I know in our house, we never cut a regular pie into 12 wedges.

It's been a tasty breakfast treat and dessert item in our house, and another good way to use garden rhubarb surplus. Who would say "no" to a piece of pie for breakfast?!