Nasturtium
Tropaeoulum majus NL: Oost-Indische Kers / F: Capucine This cute climbing plant comes originally from the Andean region, but it seem to do pretty well in most climates. It is praised as much for its ornamental aspect as it is for its culinary and medicinal uses. Its hot-pungent taste, a little stronger than watercress at times, makes it a delicious - and cute! - salad ingredient. Leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible, very rich in vitamin C. I like using the larger leaves (when they grow in shadowy places the leaves can get as large as 15cm of diameter!) in my green smoothies, leaving the sweet flowers to salads. The young seeds are even hotter than the flowers and leaves and they can be ground, added as spice to salad dressings or stews, or they can be prepared as capers. The mature seeds contain more than 25% of protein and they can be dried and ground to be used as a healthier pepper substitute. In medicinal herbalism is nasturtium mostly known as an expectorant and disinfec...