Black Mustard

This leaf packs a very powerful mustard kick as you can probably tell from the name - It used to be grown in the UK for mustard seed, but has since been replaced with Rapeseed. Though it has long fallen out of favour in modern day farming - it hasn’t stopped growing here - you’ll find it growing pretty much everywhere, if you look. 

Ever wondered where the word mustard comes from?

In France they used to mix ground mustard seeds with partially fermented grape juice, they called it moût-ardent, which translates to burning must (burning - because it was spicy and must was the name for the partially fermented grape juice). This was shortened to moutarde and then mustard. 

Suggested uses:

Use in small amounts to add flavour to meals. Stick to using half a leaf, or one leaf per person. 

Use in place of rocket in any recipe - but chop it into very thin strips - it's very strong. 

Use raw as part of a salad (chopped very thinly)

Boil or steam and use in place of broccoli as a vegetable in main meals. Though it is very spicy - so is not suitable for those who dont get on well with spicy food. 

You can blend1-2 leaves with 100ml yoghurt/creme fraiche and tablespoon of olive oil to create a tasty dip

If you are feeling adventurous and are a pro level ‘healthy’ person, blend half a leaf to create a spicy smoothie with a pinch of turmeric, 100g plain live yoghurt, a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil or sunflower seed oil (or you can use a teaspoon of black cumin oil or milk thistle oil - if you have that in stock - i’m impressed) and 100ml of water. 

You may want to freeze anything you don't use - so you can add a few leaves as needed to soups/dips in future.