Forest Foods of Northern Region of Western Ghats is the only book I’ve seen so far in India to focus on edible wild plants, rather than medicinal, and at the same time feature high quality photographs to help the reader identify each plant. The authors have also included basic details of how to prepare and cook each of the parts of the plants listed.
I wanted a copy as soon as I saw it but like so many of these books it wasn’t available on Amazon. I got lucky though – I managed to get the phone number of one of the authors, Dr Mandar Datar, and when I spoke to him he kindly offered us a complimentary copy.
So far we have used the book to identify and eat:
Asparagus racemosus – each small plant has a large clump of roots which are sweet to eat raw. This is the famous shatavari of Ayurveda, used to promote healthy menstruation, lactation and female well being in general.
Canna indica – an edible root (raw or cooked), shoots that can be cooked as a vegetable, tasty young seeds and as a bonus you can use the large leaves to steam things in – we made steamed chocolate rice sweets
Costus speciosos – a very fibrous root but certainly edible if cut up into tiny pieces or processed to remove the fibre
Diplocyclos palmata or the lollipop plant – its leaves can be cooked and make a good side dish
Hibiscus furcatus – identified but not yet tried
Ipomoea nil – this is one of the morning glory plants and has edible leaves
Mucuna pruriens – we’ve tried its leaves which were slightly tough, and are waiting for the fruiting season to try the seeds
Nymphaea nouchali – covered in an upcoming post
Physalis minima – we have been eating the ripe fruit but didn’t know the leaves were also edible. When we tried them though (with a dry pumpkin subji) they were extremely bitter and nothing we tried could make them palatable.
The only drawback, from our perspective, is that the book’s scope is geographically limited. For anyone foraging in the Western Ghats though I would definitely recommend this.
Jungli Food 