I decided to try to make a meat substitute out of the female Bulrush flower (the sausage part). The protein content isn't really high enough to be used as a main source of protein, however I thought that the the fibers of the female flowers might replicate the texture of meats.
I harvested the flower in mid July which is a bit late really. It's recommended that you gather them in Spring - very early Summer when the female flowers are green instead of brown. Nevertheless I wanted to see how suitable the brown flowers were for cooking.
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp savoury seasoning
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 tbsp soft brown cooking sugar
- 1 cup, but probably more, milk
- 2 cups female bulrush flower (1 sausage)
Break the stem in half and begin pulling off the flowers. It helps to twist whilst pulling. As you can see there was still some green in the flowers, maybe don't use any that are less fresh than pictured.
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| About 2 cups collected from one shoot |
Add the eggs, sugar, salt, pepper and seasoning to the flowers. Melt the butter and mix it in with the other ingredients.
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| Mocha optional |
After stirring slightly blend the mixture in a food processor or in this case smoothie maker. You might need to add a lot more milk depending on how powerful your blender is.
It looks a bit like what the Grinch might remove from his plug hole at this point.
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| Before |
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| After |
Did I eat it??
To be honest I didn't really want to for some reason. I just wanted to see what it would turn out like :3. I ended up trying it and was really really surprised how nice it was, it was really tasty and had an almost candy floss texture. It actually works pretty well as a meat substitute in terms of taste and texture. I probably should have added some MSG or something similar.
To make a vegan version you could substitute the butter for vegan butter, the milk for rice or almond milk and then maybe add less sugar. And the eggs for oil and baking powder, or potato starch or even banana!
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