The first time I ate purslane was in Greece, quite a few years ago.
It was in a hotel restaurant near Olympia, which I had just visited with my family.
Purslane was served as a salad ingredient. I remember that I really liked it's refreshing, slightly sour, substantial crunch. When I asked the waitress what it was, she wasn't able to tell me in English, but told me that it was cultivated in the hotel garden.
I thought it was a plant native to Greece and was very surprised to discover that it is considered a weed and grows in many places. In Italy it's easy to find in July/August.
Purslane has shiny, fleshy, paddle shaped leaves and thick reddish stems. You can find it growing upright or sometimes spreading out on the ground. It's favourite place to grow is a moist, well drained soil, but it will also grow in dry cracks in the road. I always find it growing in my outdoor plant pots (often with the geraniums). I have no idea how it gets there. It's very easy to repot or to grow from seed and grows very quickly . It's a great addition to summer salads.
It's packed full of vitamins (A, C, E and B) and minerals (magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron).
It also contains more omega 3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant.
Eat it before the small yellow flowers appear.
Don't confuse it with spurge that some say can look similar. Spurge has milky sap whereas Purslane has clear sap if you break the stem.
You can find a comparison of the two plants here: estatevaults.com
Purslane is also very popular added to salads (finely chopped) with yogurt dressings in Turkey.
This simple dip is inspired by this type of salad.
You can also use it as a base and add other ingredients/herbs
(lemon/fresh mint/ lemon balm/ anchovies etc).
Common Purslane Dip
100g purslane (washed and chopped)
200g yoghurt (creamy Greek yoghurt is best)
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (I use one)
salt
a few flakes of chili pepper
Add the purslane, salt and garlic to the yoghurt and roughly blend.
Sprinkle with chili pepper flakes.
Chill and serve how you like. My favourites ways are;
with fresh, raw veggies (carrot/ celery/fennel etc),
with baked potatoes
or tortilla chips.
Data: 06.08.2013
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