Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Alexanders along with all the Alexanders containing recipes presented on this site, with 23 recipes in total.

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

Alexanders, (also known as Alisanders, Horse Parsley and Smyrnium) Smyrnium olusatrum is a wild (and cultivated) flowering plant belonging to the Apiaceae (Umbellifera or carrot) family. Alexanders is native to Mediterranean Europe, western Asia and North Africa. The flowers of this plant are yellow-green in colour and its fruit are black. The plant can be recognized in comparison with other members of this family in that its leaves are three-lobed and the flowers are yellow-green rather than white.

For the wild forager, alexanders are a very versatile plant, in that the stems can be cooked like asparagus, the roots can be treated like any other root vegetables and the leaves can be used as a stock vegetable and are particularly useful in soups. The flower buds can also be steamed and eaten in place of broccoli.

The plant has some similarity to celery in the way it looks and in how it tastes (though its flavour is typically described as being half way between celery and parsley). Indeed, it was very commonly used in Roman cuisine in many dishes where it has now been replaced by celery. There is also some evidence that the plant was brought to Britain by the Romans as both a vegetable and a medicinal plant. It remained in used throughout the middle ages and was commonly grown in monasteries. Indeed, many sites where alexanders can be seen growing wild today used to be monastery sites.

In Britain, it is commonly found by the seashore and can frequently be seen beside cliff paths, where it is one of the year's first items of seaside greenery. The plant is particularly useful for the wild forager, as it begins its growth cycle in the Autumn and leaves are available throughout the winter.

If you are going to cultivate this plant I would suggest that you purchase commercial seed as the plant has some similarity to poisonous species such as hemlock.

Many of the recipes below are actually traditional Ancient Roman recipes where the original Roman alexanders have been replaced by celery to make them easier to prepare for the modern cook. As a wild food forager, if you want to get back to the Roman originally simply substitute alexanders for the celery (in as far as possible I have also tried to source or create recipes for all edible parts of the plant):

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1999
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–12.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants, 2004
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland, 2011
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) — How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland, 2006
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles, 1983
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles, 1987
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms, 2006
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms, 2011
[12]. Bunker, F. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland, Second Edition, 2017
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia II — A Source Book of Edible Plants, 1998
[14]. Hartford, R. Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants of Britain and Ireland: A Foraging and Photographic Identification Guide
(Note that the above book links are Amazon Affiliate links)