Shepherd's purse The forgotten kitchen herb

Naturopathy: shepherd's purse with health

The shepherd's purse with its heart-shaped fruits is an inconspicuous plant. Anyone who discovers the herb for the kitchen will be impressed by its culinary qualities. The young leaves have a spicy-spicy taste reminiscent of a mixture of cress and horseradish. This sets interesting accents in soups, egg dishes and herb quark.

For a salad, the leaves are mixed in equal parts with corn salad. In addition there are finely chopped hard-boiled eggs, roasted pumpkin seeds and a dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, natural yoghurt, mustard, salt and pepper. The slight spiciness of the capsule fruits brings pep to the sandwich and serves as a pepper substitute in vegetable pans. The small seeds can be ground like mustard and used as a spice.

The shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) belongs to the plant family of cruciferous vegetables. The one to two-year herb reaches a height of up to 40 centimeters and forms near the ground rosettes of elongated, dandelion-like lobed leaves. The small, white flowers are in grapes at the end of the upright stem and are also edible. The extraordinary fruits have given the shepherd's purse its name: they are flattened and vice versa heart-shaped, which is probably reminiscent of the shoulder bags of shepherds from earlier times. The plant is very frugal and grows on paths, even between paving stones, on the edge of the field, on scree slopes and in gardens.

The ideal harvest time for the shepherd's purse is spring. Pick the young, delicate leaves, because after flowering, they become a bit bitter. The plant contains abundant flavonoids, saponins, mustard oil glycosides, tannins, vitamin C, potassium and calcium. Incidentally, the shepherd's purse is also known for its healing properties. In alternative medicine, it is used for example in urinary tract diseases and for hemostasis. Heike Kreutz, bzfe