So my amateur botanist buddy came over today to help me on a project.

[panader0]

He is also a very talented knife and sword maker, featured a few times on Forged in Fire on TV.
https://www.myheraldreview.com/gallery/jon-wick/image_e5e0581c-df44-11e5-aa73-270d735dd721.html
He and I traveled to Costa Rica a few years ago. He plays sax in our little band.
I asked him about some of the plants that have been growing all over since the monsoons hit.
One of the most plentiful was amaranth vidiris:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthus_viridis
The other was purslane: https://www.google.com/search?q=purslane&sitesearch=
It turns out they are both tasty and super nutritious. I feel pretty stupid having all that good stuff
all around for years and thinking they were just weeds.

[alwaysinasnit]

1. Thanks for the tips. I had not known that the plant we cook was named purslane. In Spanish, it is

called "verdolagas." It seems to grow pretty wild in our yard and has to be controlled or it will take over.

[panader0]

2. How do you prepare it? Just leaves or stem too?

I was thinking about putting leaves raw in my salads.

[alwaysinasnit]

4. Hubby sautees with fresh garlic. We sometimes use to accompany (Mexican) mole sauce.

https://blog.amigofoods.com/index.php/mexican-foods/mole-mexican-sauce/

We use the upper shoots with the leaves as the lower the shoot, the tougher it is. Like cooked spinach, the volume of the purslane reduces in volume. Also like spinach, the purslane needs to be well washed. We have never eaten the leaves raw so I couldn't say about eating raw leaves. If you do try, let me know how you like it. Thanks!

[yonder]

3. Purslane: another reason to not use chemical weed control.