I learned from a fellow herbalist several years ago that chickweed helps in cleansing our lymphatic system: our body's garbage disposal of what the circulatory system is not able to clear, specifically fats. Together with a diet adjustment modulating phlegm-producing foods such as sugar, cow dairy, fried foods, alcohol, fatty animal meats, and possibly wheat gluten, adding chickweed can be helpful for facilitating detox of phlegm/congestion conditions like seasonal allergies and excess weight from calorie-rich winter foods. Chickweed is also a mild diuretic, very much like asparagus, cilantro, parsley, dandelion leaf.
Nature always provides what our body needs during the season, so chickweed is a beneficially food to consume this time of year, very much like dandelion leaves and flowers, which I wrote about a few years ago in this blog Dandelion Flower Tea. Reading back on this has inspired me to go out and pick dandelion flowers to make sun-infused tea today!
How have I been using chickweed the past few weeks?
1) I added a small handful to my green smoothie that I blended up in my Magic Bullet, with water, mandarin oranges, hemp seed, chia seed, homemade water kefir, and dash of apple cider vinegar. Experiment with your own green smoothie recipe!
Spring is the Wood element in Chinese medicine 5-element theory, consisting of the Liver and Gallbladder meridians, and one of the ways to balance our internal Wood element is to experiment, be creative, and try out new ideas! Interested in knowing more about the Wood element? Check out my previous blog post Spring as Growth
2) I've picked the tender top leaves and mixed it with romaine lettuce very much like how you would add arugula or sprouts to salads.
3) Chopped the tender top shoots together with cilantro/parsley and added to soups and broths at the end as a garnish.
4) After reading about dried chickweed tea, maybe I'll try to dry some this year!
Do you have any other uses you've tried?
