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Lambsquarters, the leafy weed you’ve probably yanked out of your vegetable beds all summer, has three times the calcium and more protein than raw spinach, and there’s a good chance it’s growing in your garden right now for free. I love lambs quarter. It’s tasty, nutritious, grows readily, and you can find it through much of the year. You’ve just got to be able to safely identify it.
Identify Lambsquarters By Its Powdery, Diamond-Shaped Leaves
Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) is an annual weed in the goosefoot family, and it’s easier to identify than most people expect. You’ll also find it listed under the names fat hen, white goosefoot, and melde in other foraging guides, so don’t assume you’ve found something new if the name doesn’t match. New leaves and stem tips are dusted with a whitish, mealy powder that looks like someone brushed them with flour, most obvious on the undersides. Mature leaves are diamond or triangle shaped with jagged, wavy edges, which is where the “goosefoot” name comes from. Stems often carry reddish purple streaks, and a healthy plant can reach 3 to 5 feet tall by late summer if you let it go.
Seedlings are where people get nervous. Lambsquarters seedlings have long, narrow cotyledons with no midrib and a purplish underside, while redroot pigweed seedlings, a common look-alike, have a distinct midrib running down the center of theirs. Black nightshade seedlings look different again, with pointed oval seed leaves and smooth edged, spade shaped true leaves. If you’re not sure, let a plant grow a few more sets of leaves before you harvest. The mealy coating and goosefoot shape become obvious fast.
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Lambsquarters Beats Spinach On Calcium, Protein, And Vitamin C
A 100 gram serving of raw lambsquarters has around 309 milligrams of calcium, compared with 99 milligrams in the same amount of raw spinach. It also carries more protein, at roughly 4.2 grams against spinach’s 2.9 grams, and close to three times the vitamin C, at 80 milligrams versus 28. Spinach does pull ahead on iron, at about 2.7 milligrams to lambsquarters’ 1.2, so it’s not a total sweep. Still, for a plant nobody plants on purpose, that’s a serious nutritional resume.
Lambsquarters was actually the dominant leafy green across much of Europe long before spinach arrived from Asia and pushed it out of cultivated gardens in the 1500s. Nobody replaced it because it was better. They replaced it because spinach was new and fashionable, and lambsquarters got demoted to a weed.
Harvest Young Leaves And Cook Them Exactly Like Spinach
Pick the top few inches of new growth and the youngest leaves, ideally before the plant flowers, when the texture is most tender and the flavor is mildest. Lambsquarters keeps producing fresh growth from spring right through the first hard frost, so one patch can feed you for months if you keep pinching the tips instead of stripping a whole plant bare.
Once it’s picked, treat lambsquarters exactly like spinach in the kitchen. Sauté it in a little butter or olive oil, steam it as a side, stir it into soup, or fold it into a quiche, omelet, or casserole the way you would any other cooked green. I use it as a straight one for one swap in any recipe that calls for spinach, and most people can’t tell the difference once it’s cooked down.
Know The Safety Limits Before You Forage
Only harvest lambsquarters from soil you know hasn’t been treated with herbicide, and be cautious of plants growing in heavily fertilized ground, since the taproot pulls up nitrates along with everything else. Oxalates are naturally occurring compounds in many leafy greens, including lambsquarters and spinach, that can bind with calcium and contribute to kidney stones in people who are prone to them. If you have a history of kidney stones, gout, arthritis, or gastric inflammation, it’s worth checking with your doctor before making lambsquarters a regular habit. Cooking it, rather than eating it raw in bulk, helps keep that oxalate load down.
The seeds are edible too, and it’s a family trait. Lambsquarters is a close relative of quinoa, both in the genus Chenopodium, and like quinoa, the seeds contain saponins, natural soap-like compounds that can upset your stomach in large quantities. A light sprinkle over a salad is fine. A cup isn’t.
FAQs
Is lambsquarters the same as Good King Henry?
No, though the two get mixed up constantly. Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus) is a related perennial that was historically cultivated as a vegetable, with similar arrow shaped leaves and a spinach-like flavor when cooked. Lambsquarters is the wild annual you’re more likely to find uninvited in a vegetable bed.
Can you eat lambsquarters raw?
Yes, young leaves and tender growing tips are fine raw in small amounts, whether snacked on straight from the plant or tossed into a salad. For a full serving, cooking is the better choice, since it reduces the oxalate content and makes older leaves more palatable.
Does lambsquarters keep growing back if you pinch it?
Yes. Pinching off the growing tips encourages the plant to branch and push out new tender growth, so you can keep harvesting the same patch through the season instead of pulling the whole plant at once.
Can chickens eat lambsquarters?
Yes, young lambsquarters plants are a useful feed for chickens, and mine go straight into the run whenever I’ve pulled more than I can use in the kitchen.
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