Pokeweed fritters – a recipe for pokeweed greens

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Watch our video below to see how to prepare pokeweed and make pokeweed fritters or view it on YouTube:

American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)… Eat it raw or improperly prepared and it will make you quite sick. Yes, it’s technically a poisonous plant.

However, pokeweed was regularly consumed by Native Americans and European settlers alike. In fact, until the year 2000 when the Allen Canning Company went bankrupt, you could buy canned pokeweed at many local southern grocery stores.

So suffice it to say, pokeweed is edible IF you know when to harvest it, what parts of the plant to harvest, and how to prepare it to remove the toxins prior to eating it. And pokeweed is sufficiently tasty and abundant to make knowing how to eat it worthwhile.

Here are the keys to safely harvesting and using pokeweed:

1. Never eat pokeweed raw.
2. Only harvest young pokeweed shoots in the spring. If they’ve started to develop flower buds or flowers, do not use them.
3. Only use the leaves and stems, NOT the roots, flowers, or berries.
4. Always properly boil pokeweed to remove its toxins before eating. (see below)

Here we should also note that pokeweed is like two veggies in one:

• Leaves – Cooked pokeweed leaves can be used like cooked spinach
• Stems – Pokeweed stems are more akin to a tender root crop. In the south, chopped pokeweed stems (after boiling) were often cooked with bacon and mixed into scrambled eggs.

How to boil pokeweed to remove toxins

Here is how to remove the poisonous compounds from pokeweed leaves or stems prior to consumption:

1. Bring *two pots of water to a boil – one pot is used to refill, the other to boil the pokeweed. (*Use a third pot if you’re keeping the stems and leaves separated.) Boil the pokeweed with the lid on for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Do not start your timer until there is a full rolling boil and the lid is on the pot.
2. Strain and put your pokeweed back into its pot. Pour boiling water into the pokeweed pot, put the lid on, and boil it for another 2 minutes.
3. Strain and repeat second step (boil for 2 minutes).
4. Strain and dunk pokeweed into a large bowl of ice water to immediately stop it from cooking.

If you’re making our pokeweed fritter recipe, you’ll now give your cooked pokeweed leaves a vigorous squeeze to remove excess water and get ready to start cooking! The recipe below makes four pokeweed leaf fritters or about two servings.

We hope you enjoy pokeweed fritters! Please drop us a comment or recipe rating to let us know what you think.

-Aaron & Susan