Table Talk: Gillian Veal on local wild garlic

• The List
• 15 September 2015

Gillian Veal / credit: Dylan Drummond

Parlour Café owner on Dundee's essential wild grown ingredient

'I first came across Dundee’s wild garlic about eight years ago, when a young customer of The Parlour asked me if I would like to buy some from him. He had picked, washed and packaged up the vibrant green leaves. I bought a few leaves and it’s such a great ingredient that we have been using it every year since.

We simply use it in place of garlic bulbs whenever possible and we treat it as a herb in our salads and savoury dishes. My personal favourite way to use the leaves is to finely chop it into a chedder omelette or blend it into a pesto and pour over grilled goat’s cheese. The flowers are edible and look so delicate and pretty in a salad or for a simple garnish.

You can source it from local suppliers from mid-March through to July, but I find so many people bring it to me I never need to.'

Gillian Veal is the owner of The Parlour Café and Folk Café.