I finally got to make this classic Eastern European soup with my lacto-fermented Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylum).

In case you don’t think i’m Ukrainian enough – I’ll have you know my grandad was from Eastern Europe, and he became Head Chef of The Savoy, London! Ok, so he was Yugoslavian/Hungarian, but that counts, right?

Right!! 🙂

What IS Borscht?

To count as Borscht, a soup is

• Slightly sour, from fermentation or sour ingredients such as Sorrel or lemon
• an Eastern European recipe – mainly from Ukraine, also Poland, where it is known as ‘Barszcz Czerwony’. (Phototoxic Giant Hogweed was used in this too!)
• Involving root vegetables such as potatoes, beet, carrot
• Often served with sour or heavy cream

Borscht comes in several colours and forms. The most well known is the version with beets, which dye the soup a gorgeous burgundy and add earthy sweetness. There’s a yellow borscht, too.

The most ancient version is Green Borscht. This is traditionally made using Common Hogweed/’Cow Parsley’. Now this is a great reason why using Latin names for plants is useful. In the UK, ‘Cow Parsley’ can mean a totally different plant in the Carrot family – Anthriscus sylvestris. This is edible, and I have written about it here.

Is Common Hogweed edible?

Yes. First, some cautions.

Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylum) is a common plant in the UK and Europe. It is a relative of Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), which has strongly phototoxic sap when cut. If the sap from this plant falls on bare skin, which then has sunlight shone on it, the skin will blister and burn.

Common Hogweed has much lower levels of phototoxins, but the fresh sap CAN irritate sensitive skin. Personally, I occasionally get a minor sensitivity on my skin on very hot days, and I’ve picked and eaten a lot of it. It’s perfectly edible otherwise.

Some say you can eat it raw, and some say it must be cooked. I have eaten young shoots and immature flower heads raw over the last 15 years, (though just one or two at a time), and come to no harm. Best to avoid eating a whole raw basket full in one go, just in case! Remember, in picking young shoots low to the ground it’s possible something could have weed on them. Give them a good rinse or lacto-ferment them.

ALLERGEN: Avoid Hogweed if you are allergic to celery, as it’s a related species!

Nutrition in Common Hogweed

So why should we bother eating Hogweed? Well, Common Hogweed is highly nutritious. It contains roughly 35-50% more of the following nutrients than a comparable supermarket vegetable:

Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Iron, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Protein

Medicinally, it’s used in Ayurvedic medicine to calm inflammation, for digestion and gut health, and for clearing congestion/aiding respiration.

If you’d like to deep dive into this, there’s a research paper about improving the gut health of broiler chickens by feeding them Hogweed powder extract here! The species used in this is H.persicarium, which comes from Iran. It’s known as ‘golpar’ in Iranian cuisine, and the seeds are used to flavour dishes too.

How do I recognise Common Hogweed?

Hogweed is in the Carrot family (Apiaceae). This family contains great, tasty, nutritious edibles, and also plants that can send you packing to the hereafter in half an hour. Be confident in your I.D, or don’t risk it.

Stem: bristly, green or pink/purple flush (NO SPOTS), ridges.

Leaves: hairy, pinnate leaves with opposite lobes. To 60cm long. Width of lobes can vary.

Flowers: White umbels, with petals of different sizes. (see above pic). Looks like upside down umbrella. Umbels have 40 rays and are roughly 20cm across.

Seeds: Flattened, with two black stripes on them. They turn from green to tan when dried. Strong scent of orange oil/winter spices when crushed.

Where can I find Hogweed?

Common Hogweed likes growing on waysides, woodland edges, and near water in temperate, boreal and continental climates.

Common Hogweed is native to the UK, Europe, Denmark and the Netherlands, Turkey, parts of North Africa, Greece, and the Balkans. It’s introduced into the East US, Western Russia, New Zealand, the Himalayas and Iceland. Closely related H.persicaria or ‘golpar’ grows in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.

What a prolific plant…you’re sure to find some for the pot wherever you live!

Okay, so now we’ve got through that, who wants to make some heart and stomach warming Borscht/Barszch?

MAKE UKRAINIAN HOGWEED BORSCHT!

You will need: (serves 3)

1/2 cup diced carrot

1 cup diced potato

1 cup lacto-fermented Hogweed with juice

1/2 cup diced raw beetroot

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

2 tbsp butter/cooking oil

1 clove garlic

2-3 cups chopped young fresh Hogweed leaves and stems

3 cups veg stock

1/2 cup sour cream/ Greek yoghurt

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp dried dill

fresh dill sprigs

1 tsp mustard powder/horseradish sauce

1 tbsp fresh lovage leaves (optional)

1. Chop all the root veg into cubes. Melt the butter/put the oil in a deep pan and add the root veg and chopped garlic. Sweat for 5 mins.
2. Boil 500ml water, then add veg stock cube and stir. Add stock to root veg an d simmer until veg is soft.
3. Mash or blend. I use a potato masher, being low impact and also not having much electricity.
4. Add in fresh Hogweed greens and cook for a further 5 mins.
5. Mix the yoghurt/sour cream with the flour and mustard powder/horseradish.
6. Add a little warm root veg broth to the yoghurt mix and stir.
7. Once soup is warm not hot, add the yoghurt mix, the lovage, and the lacto-fermented Hogweed.
8. Once in bowls, top with more sour cream/yoghurt, a splash of dill and some pepper. I like to add seeds. A hard boiled egg is traditional with borscht!

The far right (god forbid!) lacto-ferment is unadulterated Common Hogweed in salt and spring water. I used a whole jar in this recipe. all you need to do is chop up 2 cups of Common Hogweed stems and leaves, add 1/2 tsp rock or sea salt, and top up with mineral or spring water. Push the plant matter under the water with something non-toxic (I use food-grade plastic veg wrappers, but use a jam plunger if you want to get all posh). I left mine for 5 days near my stove. As it was quite warm, it fermented quickly.

I didn’t add more yoghurt at the end as there was quite a lot already in the soup. My 11 year old won’t touch soup, but I and my neighbour enjoyed it 🙂

I added some Hedge Mustard greens on top (Sisymbrium officinale) and some Quorn. Try adding chunks of pork if you’re not veggie.

Learn more about this amazing and common wild green in my next blog post on Palestinian Hedge Mustard Hwerneh, another fermented recipe.

If you’d like to learn more about lacto-fermentation in a fun way, come on a Wild Kimchi course with me. Or a Spring Foraging course with Tapas. Links for the next courses are below, with more on my Field Courses page. Do spread the word so I can take over the world!

Not really 🙂

xx Hedgewitch Kat xx