I’s wild garlic leaf and potato soup

You’ve probably seen them in the woods in Spring, announced either by their pungent smell or by their characteristic tiny bright white clusters of flowers. Wild garlic is one plant that you’ll rarely find alone – like bluebells, they carpet woods and border footpaths, their plush leaves a shiny, verdant green.

With regard to scavenging this plant, it is worth knowing that it is technically an offense to “intentionally pick, uproot or destroy” any of the wild plants listed in Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Allium ursinium, also known as ramsons, buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, or bear’s garlic, is included in Schedule 8 (which you can download here), but happily for us, it is given the designation “Taxa which are neither threatened nor near threatened”.

This great website comes to the conclusion that “Harvesting wild food from public rights of way and parkland is acceptable as long as nothing is uprooted or damaged” – and for our soup we are going to carefully select a maximum of two juicy leaves from each plant, leaving the flower head intact and the bulb firmly rooted! (Take care as well to check the underside of leaves for insect eggs)

We hope you enjoy the following recipe – feel free to customise however you like, adding coriander (bleugh), double cream, leeks, etc. And if you need more inspiration, this article from The Guardian is a good place to start!

I’s wild garlic leaf and potato soup

Ingredients:

• Two big handfuls of freshly-scavenged wild garlic leaves
• Eight medium-sized spuds,
• Milk
• Butter
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Wash your wild garlic leaves and scrub the spuds
2. Chop the spuds into smallish chunks and cook in boiling water with a pinch of salt until cooked through
3. Remove the pan from the heat and drain the water, roughly tear your leaves and add them in with the cooked potato cubes (don’t forget a huge knob of butter!)
4. Mash roughly, adding a splash of milk to loosen
5. Start to blend with a hand blender, adding milk as you go, until the soup is the consistency you want
6. Return to the heat and season to taste with salt and pepper
7. Serve straight away with crusty bread, or pour into a flask and take down to the beach!