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Poke Salet (Salat? Sallet? Salad? Salit?) Recipes

Poke Salet is a Southern staple. During spring and summer, you will find a steaming bowl of poket salet most all Southern tables at least once to twice each week. Poke Salet is an invasive weed that grows in the darnedest places just like Kudzu does. When poke salet is cooked, it resembles spinach and tastes like asparagus. It is a very nutritious greens dish.

How to prepare your Poke Salet for recipes:

The fresh and very young leaves of poke salet - 3 to 4 inches at the growing tips - are the best to pick.

Carefully and thoroughly wash the leaves, trimming the stems if they are tough.
Fill a large pot 2/3 of the way with fresh water, and add leaves.
Boil the pokeweed leaves gently until they are tender, around 20 minutes.
Drain and discard the liquid, and rinse pokeweed in cool water.
Refill pot with fresh water and boil the leaves lightly 20 minutes again.
For the second time, drain and discard the liquid, and rinse pokeweed in cool water.
Refill the pot with fresh water and lightly boil the leaves for the last 20 minutes.
For the third and last time, drain and discard liquid and rinse pokeweed in cool water.
Squeeze out excess water and get ready to rock these recipes!

Wanna read about Poke Salet? Visit Poke Salet: The Versatile Veggie

Poke Salet Dip 1
This is fantastic! Try hollowing out a large loaf of bread then placing this dip inside. Use removed bread to dip or the chips of your choice - corn, potato, pita bread, etc.

1 cup poke salet, cooked and drained (or canned)
2 teaspoons seasoned salt (containing paprika, garlic, etc.)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
2 cups mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup pecans
1 cup sliced green onions
Salt and pepper
1 large red cabbage, if desired

In a large mixing bowl, combine poke salet, sour cream, mayonnaise, cream cheese, pecans and green onions. Using a wooden spoon, mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well blended. Add seasoned salt, oregano, dill weed and lemon juice. Season to taste using salt and pepper. Cover bowl with a clear wrap and place in refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours.

If you are feeling fancy, trim core end of cabbage to form a flat base. Cut a crosswise slice from the top, making it wide enough to remove about a fourth of the cabbage. Lift out enough inner leaves to form a shell or bowl about 1-inch thick. Spoon dip into cavity of cabbage and serve with an assortment of fresh vegetables or croutons.

Poke Salet Dip 2 (the easy one)
This recipe was modified from my favorite spinach dip recipe - I just substituted poke salet for the spinach.

1 1/2 cups poke salet, cooked and drained (or canned)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 envelope vegetable soup and recipe mix
3 to 5 green onions, chopped fine

Stir all ingredients until well mixed. Cover; chill for about 20 minutes to an hour.

Poke Salet Brunch

1 pound bacon (or less if you ain't a bacon freak)
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
1/4 cup water
Salt to taste
Hardboiled or scrambled eggs

Meantime fry bacon in a large skillet and save drippings in a bowl; set aside. Clean and cut onion in quarters. Take drained poke salad, and put it in the same skillet.

Add 1/4 cup of drippings from bacon. Add onion, garlic, 1/4 cup of water, salt to taste. Over medium heat, cover skillet, and let steam fry until onions start to caramelize or get tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve and garnish with hard boiled egg and bacon.

OPTION: After the onions were cooked, my granny would crack about 4 eggs (or more, depending on how many hungry folks were at her table) and slightly beat them with a "touch" (1/4 cup for 4 eggs) of milk plus salt. Next, she'd pour the egg mixture over the poke sallet and scramble it all together. She said she never had leftovers!

Fried and Egged Poke Salet

1 large bunch poke salet
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder (or more if you're a garlic fan)
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot pepper sauce to taste
5-6 slices (or more!) uncooked bacon
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 gallon size zip bag

After cleaning poke leaves, chop it into small pieces and place in saucepan with enough water to cover it. Cook and drain as indicated above.

Put bacon in skillet and fry it up crisp, reserving every precious bit of bacon drippings. Crumble up bacon and set aside for now.

In the zip bag, shake together flour, garlic powder, *salt and pepper. (*Start out with maybe 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper - adjust the amounts to your liking.) Wring out as much liquid from the cooked poke salet as you can, then pull it back into pieces. Put the poke salet in with the flour mixture and shake until it's well coated.

Make sure your skillet containing the bacon drippings is heated up to medium. Now, shake off excess flour and carefully place poke salet in the skillet. Cook until golden brown delicious. Drain off grease, then pour in the slightly beaten eggs; stir until eggs are done to your taste. Serve it with a grin and some hot sauce!

Deep Fried Kudzu Leaves

Pick light green leaves, 2-inch size
Make a thin batter with iced water, touch of salt, and flour
Oil

Heat oil. Rinse and dry kudzu leaves, then dip in batter (chilled). Fry oil quickly on both sides until brown. Drain on paper toweling. Eat while warm.