Purslane is a rather unusual and unknown vegetable that is not easy to find outside of Turkey. But when you find it, it creates a delicate, pleasant surprise opening the possibilities for a healthy, fresh salad or a hearty and filling main dish.  This vegetable seen above in the picture is a bit like spinach but with smaller leaves with a mild taste.  To prepare a salad or a main dish, first remove the more delicate leaves and thinner branches from the rest of the main, thicker stems. Discard the rougher, thicker stems. After washing it thoroughly, you can serve the remainder of the leaves as a salad, chopped up and mixed with some garlic yogurt sauce and salt, or proceed to the rest of this recipe to make a dish that can be served hot and as a main meal.

Since purslane loses its volume quite a bit when it is cooked, it is best to have a good size bunch to start with, perhaps one that requires two hands to hold around the stems combined. Additional ingredients you will need for this recipe are listed on the side of this page.  After washing the purslane and removing the thicker branches, put it aside. In a large pan with top, pour some olive oil and after warming it, saute a cup of diced onions until they become translucent. Add the ground beef and saute it breaking it into smaller pieces, until it is all browned.  Once the beef is cooked and there is no pink left in it, add two or three cups of diced tomato preferably with its juices and salt to taste into the mix and cook for a few more minutes. This is when I also add a dash of crushed red pepper flakes into the mix to give it a kick.  (Note: Up until this point, the base ground beef mixture you are creating can be used in many other Turkish dishes with other vegetables such as spinach, green beans, or even grains such as beans and garbanzos. You will cook the tomato-beef base and then add the different vegetables to create a different and easy meal every time. )

Once the tomato pieces start to cook and let their juices into the beef mix, add the chopped up purslane pieces into the mix to fill the pan to the top.  The pan will be full of leaves looking like you put too much purslane, but don’t be scared. The volume will soon disappear when the leaves start cooking. Try to mix all a bit, then add half a cup of water into the mix and close the lid. In about 6-7 minutes, you will be able to blend the ingredients better once the leaves start to cook. At that point, when there is some water in the mix - purslane’s own juices mixed with tomato juice- add the rice into the pot. Close the lid again.

As the tomato pieces create a nice juicy sauce for the dish, the rice will cook and absorb the water remaining in the pot. Let the mix cook until you still have some water left at the bottom of the pan but the mix is not watery.  Once the rice is cooked and not crunchy, your dish will be ready. Serve it hot with whole sheep’s yogurt on top.

Enjoy and let me know how you like this vegetable, here in comments.

Meltem

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