How to Cook Foraged Foods without Dying

Transform your foraged finds into unforgettable dishes with this collection of recipes that showcase the bold flavors of wild greens, mushrooms, herbs, seeds, fruits, and more.

Once you find the wild edibles you’ve been looking for—either out in nature or at the or at the farmers’ market—what do you do with them? This guide for home cooks is filled with 100 delectable, accessible recipes that bring forth the unique flavors of uncultivated foods. It features a curated selection of 50 popular, widely available wild ingredients—herbs, seasonings, greens, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, and fruit—all presented with easy-to-achieve recipes that evoke classic dishes, including some shared by a diverse array of well-known chefs and foragers such as José Andrés, Gabrielle Cerberville (@chaoticforager), and Bryan Voltaggio. Recipes include:

• Stinging Nettle Spanakopita
• Saffron Coconut Curry with Lotus Seeds
• Chamomile Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
• Hearty Oyster Mushroom Bolognese
• Zingy Crabapple Jelly
• And more!

• “Nevin Martell has created something far more than a foraging guide. This book is both a field guide to the edible landscape and a field guide to the kitchen. It gives readers the confidence to identify, harvest, and prepare wild foods with equal parts curiosity, respect, and practicality. Whether you’re stepping into the woods for the first time or looking to deepen your connection to the natural world, this is an indispensable companion—and perhaps the most important lesson it teaches is right there in the title: enjoy the bounty, but do it safely.”
  Chef Bryan Voltaggio
• “When I first met Nevin a few years ago, I entrusted him to show me the best places to eat in Washington DC. He is now asking me to trust him with my life. And I am inclined to do so, because Nevin has proved himself an expert forager and writer of recipes for things I’ve been wary of eating before. This book is the next best thing to a walk in the woods with Nevin, entering hungry, and exiting with a free meal that is also delicious.”
  Phil Rosenthal, Somebody Feed Phil
• “As a young child growing up in Sweden, I loved the adventure of roaming local forests on the hunt for wild ingredients.  Nevin captures the joy of foraging with friends and family and the thrill of transforming these items into delicious, tasty dishes. This book gives you the tools and confidence to head out and discover all that nature has to offer.”
  Marcus Samuelsson, Chef, Restaurateur & Author of Back to Green: Rediscovering a World of Delicious, Healthy Eating
• “A remarkable debut cookbook that demystifies the practice of foraging and delivers a collection of delectable recipes for anyone interested in truly creating a nature-to-table meal at home.”
  Edward Lee, Chef and Author of Bourbon Land
• “Nevin Martell’s excitement for foraging jumps off the page and will pull you out of your kitchen, into the woods and back again, where you’ll dip ground cherries in chocolate, turn lamb’s quarters into stuffed shells, and reimagine the scallion pancake of your dreams using ramps. Best of all, you’ll learn how to do it all safely, harnessing the delicious ingredients of the natural world to create the wildest pantry possible. What a resource!”
  Joe Yonan, author of Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking and Cool Beans
• “An informative and delicious guide to the whimsical world of cooking with nature.”
  Rob Rubba, Chef/Partner, Oyster Oyster
• “No one gets to live forever, but Nevin provides some consolation that even the kitchen-averse among us can cook foraged foods without dying.”
  Frank Hyman, author, How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying
• “As someone who has built a career cooking from forests and fields, I know how intimidating wild food can seem at first. Nevin Martell strips away that fear with enthusiasm, clarity, and recipes you'll want to cook. This is a welcoming invitation to discover just how abundant the landscape around us can be.”
  Lane Regan, author of Burn the Place and Fieldwork, chef and innkeeper of the Milkweed Inn