13 March 2012
BEIRUT: During the month of March, at every corner florist are pots of cyclamen, a small plant with delicate white, blush or deep pink flowers and dark green, heart-shaped leaves.
While the flowers are usually the main attraction, the leaves are an unexpected treat.Cyclamen persicum – known in Arabic as Duwayk al-Jabal – is the wild cousin of the flower shop staple. The plant is much better known in the gardening than culinary world, but its leaves are very much edible and can be eaten raw in salads – with a dry and slightly nutty taste – or cooked.
Cyclamen persicum is native to Lebanon, growing all over the country from the coast to 1200m. It also grows wild across the Levant and Turkey, as well as parts of North Africa.
According to Jihane Chahla, an agricultural engineer at Souk el-Tayeb, Lebanese would often collect cyclamen leaves in the past, but few continue to eat the leaves as the traditions of harvesting and cooking wild plants have been largely forgotten.
While the leaves are unlikely to be found at local supermarkets, there are several vendors selling bouquets of the plant at Souk el-Tayeb.
On a recent Saturday morning, Mona, a retiree and grandmother who was scanning the wares at the souk, decided on a bouquet of cyclamen, but says she had never heard of eating it.
“It is only to look at. When you see it, you think of spring. Last year, we were driving through Mansourieh and the flowers were everywhere,” she says.
A nearby vendor, selling bottles of plant essence and jars of preserves, chimed in, saying that the leaves can indeed be used in cooking.
Walid and Maysoun Nasserdine, a chef couple from the Chouf village of Kfarkatra, are working to keep such culinary traditions alive. The two, who regularly cook for Tawlet, the restaurant of Souk el Tayeb, focus on the traditional, but with an emphasis on organic vegetarian dishes.
Their Mehsheh Cyclamen, or stuffed cyclamen, is one dish that makes use of the wild leaves. It will be instantly recognizable to fans of Mediterranean cuisine as a version dolma and fans of stuffed grape leaves should like this one too.
Beyond Souk el-Tayeb, cyclamen are plentiful – and free – in the wild and March is a great time to try the plant, which reaches its peak between February and the end of April.
It thrives in moist soil with some shade and can be found growing in olive groves and woodlands, as well as rocky hillsides. While cyclamen are easy to find and to pick in the wild, Chahla cautions against over-harvesting.
“The most important thing is that the collection should be done carefully and in a controlled manner to assure sustainability of these flowers in the wild,” she says.
But with a little restraint and a sense of adventure, picking cyclamen leaves and making a culinary creation is within any cook’s reach.
For those interested in learning more about wild edible plants, Tawlet will be hosting the pre-eminent British forager Miles Irving this week for a series of talks, food and field trips. See Souk el-Tayeb’s Facebook page for details.
