Late Season Purslane Saves the Day!

green chili huevos rancheros with purslane - YUM

If you follow my blog it should be no surprise to you that Dan and I enjoy purslane any chance we get. I'm pretty much obsessed with purslane. 

When we got home from our outing to Tombstone, we didn't have time to go to the store to get a veggie for dinner.  Then I remembered that I had some growing in my front yard! I simply added purslane to some leftover spaghetti sauce and heated it up. While I was at it, I also grabbed some moringa to add even more nutrition. I use just the leaves of the moringa, but I chop up the stems and leaves of the purslane. 

Note: The purslane in the pic has seed buds - which means it would be more woody. I generally look for ones that haven't gone to seed yet. 

moringa (left) and purslane with leftover sauce

This is actually late in the season for purslane, but the purslane that I planted from seed has grown and spread. And new plants are springing up after the rain! 

If you're wondering where I got the seeds... I rinse the purslane off into bowls (usually 3 or 4 times) and the seeds go to the bottom. I simply pour the seeds where I want them to grow. The best place is somewhere you already water. You can see they spread very well in the gravel (above.)   

I got up early to clean up a nearby lot and I still didn't get to the store. So I harvested more purslane for breakfast!

I had a little left over green chili sauce and tortillas that I needed to use up, so I decided to make green chili huevos rancheros with purslane. Yum!  Thought you might like to see how I make 'em. 

The tortillas were thin and crumbling, so I decided to fry them to make them firmer so they could hold up to the sauce. (If they are thick, fresh tortillas I skip this step.)  

Then I cut up the stems of the purslane and sautéed them. (Sometimes I will sauté onions and add them to it but this time I really wanted to taste the flavor of the purslane.) I poured the green chili sauce into a big sauce pan, and laid 2 tortillas in the sauce. Then I ladled purslane onto the tortillas and grated cheese on that.

I covered those with tortillas and heated them up on both sides (until the cheese was melted.) Finally, I topped them with a fried egg. 

And my baby and I enjoyed a yummy huevos rancheros with purslane brunch... 

...with a beautiful view of our yard - unseasonably green from the last rain.