Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Common Mallow along with all the Common Mallow containing recipes presented on this site, with 15 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Common Mallow as a major wild food ingredient.

The Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris (also known as: Mallow, High mallow, French Hollyhock, Tree Mallow, Tall Mallow), is one of about 25 species of herbaceous plants in the Malvaceae (mallow) family. It is a biennial/perennial plant growing to 0.5m tall (though it can reach 1.5m) which is a native of Europe. In the wild it's found on roadsides, banks and waste places as well as woodland verges. The cultivar 'Mauritania' is a garden flower.

Common mallow bears crinkly five-lobed (ie ivy-shaped) leaves that are slightly clammy to the touch when young. It is in flower from June to September, bearing spectacular pink broad trumpets. The seeds ripen from July to September. Though the leaves stay green almost all year round they are best picked during the summer months. Flowers, leaves, young stems and seeds can be eaten. The leaves are slightly mucilaginous and are a little slimy if steamed. However, as they have a mild and pleasant flavour young leaves make an addition to salads where they can act as a substitute to lettuce (and flower petals can be used to add colour to salads). The leaves are best used as an addition to soups where they both add flavour and act as a thickener. Immature seeds pods are often called 'cheeses' can be eaten raw as a nibble and have a pleasant nutty flavour. They can also be lightly steamed and served as a vegetable. Mallow cheeses can be steamed, lightly boiled and also stir-fried. They can be substituted in any recipe where you would otherwise use peas. They can be lightly blanched, drained and frozen over winter. The leaves can also be used to prepare a herb tea by infusion. Leaves can also be blanched, squeezed dry and frozen for winter use. I have also successfully dried the leaves before rendering to a powder. This can be used as a thickener for soups and stews.

Young stems can be cut, stripped of leaves and leaf buds and cooked in place of asparagus (they tend to get stringy as they get older, but side-shoots from older stems can still be prepared in this way). The European common mallow is a close relative of the plant variously known in Africa as Melokhia, Jute or Jew's Mallow. The leaves, when finely chopped can therefore be used as thickeners for stews or soups. They an also be dried and ground to a powder before being used as a thickener. The young leaves can be added, raw, to salads or can be cooked as a vegetable.

The immature seeds, known as mallow cheeses, are edible and have a pleasant, nutty, flavour. They can be consumed raw as a snack or cooked in soups and stews. The flowers are also edible. They can be used as garnishes for salads and desserts. The flowers can be infused in vokda or gin to make floral alcohols. The leaves can be steeped in boiling water as a tea substitute.

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms
[12]. Bunker, F.; Brodie, J.A.; Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants