Arugula – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

The Genus for rocket is Eruca.
It is part of the Brassica family.
The Polish word for this peppery vegetable is rokulka –
Taken from the Italian word rucola.
In America it is called arugula.
Chopped rocket is added to this soup just before serving.

INGREDIENTS

400g starchy potatoes
1 onion
1 can of cannellini beans
100g rocket
1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
Butter to fry onions
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Chop the onions into small pieces
Fry the onion in butter gently till golden.
Peel and chop the potatoes into small pieces.
Add the potatoes and stock and simmer for around 20 minutes till the potatoes are nearly cooked.
Drain the beans from the can and add to the potatoes.
Simmer for another 10 minutes.
Season to taste.*
*
Chop the rocket into small pieces and add to the soup before serving.
Stir in the rocket and serve.
*
NOTE
Cook to this point if making the soup ahead of time – reheat and add rocket to serve.

Mlecz was the name my mother used for dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) – this name refers to the milky fluid found in its stems. (mleko is Polish for milk)

Looking through one of my Polish recipe books I came across a salad using the leaves of mniszek lekarski – (lekarski means medicinal). On looking this up I found this was another name for dandelion!

The photo below is from a website called me.me and on a leaflet from the East Village Farm in New York.

The likelihood of having me having young dandelion leaves for this salad is low so I decided to use rocket (arugula) leaves – rukola in Polish – Eruca vesicaria or sativa which are more readily available and have a similar bitter/peppery taste from what I can gather.

Rocket has been grown in the Mediterranean area since Roman times.

Ingredients

Bunch of radishes
Around 70g of rocket
60ml of soured cream
Around a tablespoon of either fresh thyme, lemon balm, flat-leaved parsley or dill
Extra parsley to garnish