When you have a large crop of orach from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve orach:
- Use it as a substitute for spinach in a variety of cooked and baked dishes.
- Sauté it with garlic and lemon juice, lemon balm, or lemon verbena. Other alliums such as leeks and onions can be substituted for or added to the garlic in this dish.
- Sauté it with eggplant and ginger.
- Sauté it with onion and garlic. This combination also makes a great topping for hot grains such as rice, quinoa, amaranth, and others.
- Add it to other sauté and stirfry dishes.
- Make a simple soup with orach, carrots, and bell peppers. This soup is delicious as-is, and alliums such as garlic and/or onions can also be added for additional flavor.
- Add it to other soups and broths.
- Add it to egg dishes such as quiches and scrambles.
- Add it to pasta dishes, stovetop or baked.
- Add it to grilled cheese, panini, and other hot sandwiches.
- Make a pesto with orach, lemon balm, garlic, and pine nuts or other complementary nuts.
- Use it as a Base or Partial Base for an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Add it to other salads. This is a great use for raw orach as long as you are not sensitive to oxalates, which are reduced by cooking. See the Ingestibility section of the Growing Orach article here for more information.
- Use it as a wrapper substitute in a lettuce wrap.
- Add it to sandwiches for a green boost as long as you are not sensitive to oxalates. See the Ingestibility section of the Growing Orach article here for more information. Sautéed orach could also be added to a sandwich.
- Add it to smoothies.
- Grind the seeds into a flour. Orach seeds can be ground finely and mixed in with other flours for use in baked goods or as a thickener for soups and sauces.
- Make a decoction. Orach seeds can be decocted into an herbal tea. See our How to Make an Herbal Decoction article here for simple instructions.
- Blanch and freeze it to save it for later. It is best to blanch orach before freezing for optimal quality and nutrient retention. Check out this article for more about blanching.
- Dry or dehydrate it for later use. Orach can be dried in a similar way to herbs. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
Further Reading
Growing orach? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Orach is also featured in these articles: