During my foraging walk at the REwilding’s grounds the other day, I found some really tender and beautiful hogweed shoots that I took home with me to play with. Now I already know that hogweed is really tasty just fried in butter with lemon zest and chilli, but today I wanted something different.
Also today, I had a craving for some nourishing hot and sour asian-style chicken and mushroom soup. So I got a whole chicken and made do with what I had in the house.
For this recipe you will need:
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 celery sticks
- 2-3 carrots
- 1 onion
- 3 cups chopped mushrooms
- 3 thumb-sized pieces of chillies
- 1 small bunch commong hogweed leaves
- 1 cup lactofermented wild garlic leaves
- Dark soy sauce
- Oyster sauce
- Sugar
- Butter
- Chilli
- Vinegar
First of all place your chicken in a big pot, add the carrots, the celery sticks and the onion and bring to a simmer.
In a separate wok fry the chopped ginger until it is aromatic, add the mushrooms, fry for 30 seconds and add soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. You should now have a thick and fragrant mushroomy base.
Once the chicken is almost cooked, add the wok ingredients to the pot and stir. At this point it is a matter of personal preference so taste your soup and adjust acidity with the vinegar, saltiness with the soy sauce, umami with the oyster sauce and sweetness with the sugar.
Back to the wok again, add butter and sugar and once butter is melted add the hogweed shoots. Fry until crispy and caramelised.
Serve soup in a bowl with some chopped up chilli, lactofermented wild garlic leaves and caramelised hogweed.
Enjoy!
(Fer)mental Greens 