10 Delicious Fiddlehead Recipes - The Outdoor Apothecary (2024)

Fiddlehead ferns are a highly nutritious and delicious wild plant that many people look forward to when winter ends, myself included. Once cooked, the risk of foodborne illness is eliminated and they can be eaten like any leafy green. There are many amazing and unique ways to use fiddleheads. Here are 10 fiddlehead recipes for when you have an abundance of this awesome wild plant!

If you’re new to foraging and wildcrafting, you might want to learn about the ethical and sustainable considerations involved. You can read more about it here: 9 Basic Principles of Ethical Wildcrafting for Beginners or if you want to learn more about cooking wild edible plants that surround us, check out my post: Wildcraft a Feast of Invasive Edible Weeds: 25 Recipes

These tasty vegetable wonders are highly nutritious and should be eaten cooked. Like most greens, fiddleheads are full of antioxidants, Vitamin A and C, niacin iron, and fiber; they’re also a great source of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids.

*Note:Some sources say that fiddleheads can be eaten raw in small amounts. Others claim that fiddleheads run the risk of carrying foodborne illness. For this reason, I always eat them cleaned and cooked thoroughly.

• How to Clean

To prepare these yummy treats, the straight stalks and coiled tops should first be thoroughly washed in cold water to remove the papery scales. I usually fill up a clean sink and toss the fiddleheads in. Using my hands only I scrub away all the scales which end up floating to the top while the fiddleheads themselves sink to the bottom. I simply push the floating scales to the side and scoop up the clean fiddleheads.

• How to Cook

My favorite way to eat fiddlehead ferns is steamed (10-12 minutes) or boiled (15 minutes) until tender and then lightly sauteed in butter with just a dash of salt. The flavor and texture are similar to asparagus and simply delicious!

• Preserving

Since I only ever harvest enough fiddleheads to make one tasty meal each spring, I never have enough to put away for later, but if I did, I would preserve them by blanching and freezing the way I do nettles ormilkweed.

• First, thoroughly clean the fiddleheads as described
  above.
• Blanch the fiddleheads for two (2) minutes.
• Plunge the fiddleheads into cold water, and then drain.
• Discard the blanching water.
• Pack the drained fiddleheads in freezer containers or bags.
• Store in the freezer for up to one year.
• When you are ready to prepare the fiddleheads for eating, follow the cooking instructions as described above.