Greek Purslane Salad

During the pandemic, whenever I hit the farmer’s market, I have entertained myself by picking out one item I’ve never cooked with before. There’s an online ordering system available for the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets, so I don’t really know what I’m going to get until I pick up my order. I’ve snagged some common purslane a few times now, and this sour, sort of salty succulent is really unique. I have more on that on another page – Discover Something New: Purslane! – Which will be the first of future posts highlighting a plant that’s new to my kitchen. I was dying to make a salad out of purslane, which is the star of this Greek-style purslane salad.

What we call common purslane is called “glistrida” or “antrakla” in Greece. This succulent/weed is highly nutritious, but can be pretty challenging to track down in large quantities outside of a farmer’s market or in a personal garden.

If you manage to get your hands on some purslane, this salad is an easy place to start!

Preparation & Photos

As described previously, remove the roots of the raw purslane and wash the stems thoroughly. Tear or chop the cleaned stems into bite-sized pieces. Wash and chop the tomatoes and radishes.

Crumble feta over the salad

Toss the purslane, feta, tomatoes, and radish together

Drizzle olive oil, red wine vinegar over the purslane salad, and finish with salt and ground black pepper.

Substitutions

Toppings

The tomatoes are a really nice complement to the purslane, but use what you have. If you want to stay with a Mediterranean theme but change up this purslane salad to match your tastes, you can substitute (or add!) red onion, olives, and/or bell pepper.

I think another good alternative would be toppings like chopped apple, green onions, feta, and walnuts.

Vinegar

Lemon juice or white wine vinegar would be a good alternative to red wine vinegar if that isn’t your favorite.

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