Deep roots symbolize durability, resiliency and unfaltering character, they are grounded and strong. For plants, roots are a matter of life or death. Cut off a plant’s roots then replant it, the plant won’t survive. Autumn is the time for roots in the kitchen and in herbalism.

Burdock Root and Carrot Nut Torte: get the recipe here
Burdock Tea Decoction:
Combine 1 tablespoon burdock root, fresh or dried, for each 1 cup water in small saucepan, simmer covered 45 min to 1 hour, then steep for 45 minutes and strain.

Please SHARE this episode with someone who may also be fascinated by herbal medicine. Help me to spread my passion for kitchen medicine and make everyone’s home a place of herbal wisdom. ?

Ways to subscribe to An Herbal Diary
* Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcast (iTunes)
* Click here to subscribe via Stitcher
* You can also subscribe via Google Podcasts
* You can also subscribe via Spotify

Original music composed by Dylan Rice — singer, songwriter, guitarist.

Please be in touch!

Subscribe to my newsletter. Send me a question. Leave a comment on this episode. I would absolutely love to know you better and learn about your own experiences with herbal medicine!

You do not have to grow burdock to make this cake. Burdock root is sold as gobu in Asian markets or farmers markets. But you do need it to be fresh. It looks like a white carrot, which I think is why I decided to try it here in this carrot nut torte. The recipe is inspired by my favorite baker, Maida Heatter from her Book of Great Desserts. I substituted 1/3 of the grated carrots for grated burdock root, changed the lemon juice to orange juice and added vanilla. In Maida’s recipe she glazed the cake. I don’t think it needs it but on the other hand I also think it would be amazing with a frosting cream cheese or just plain vanilla.

I hope you have burdock root to use. If you do, please let me know how you use it in your cooking and especially if you make this cake! xoxo

Sending a big hug to you!

Digestion is foundational to our health and well-being. Today we focus on herbal roots that provide inulin. This prebiotic is vital to keeping the friendly microbes in our body happy as well as our digestion. And then I’m back in the kitchen to make super easy electuaries with powdered roots. ??

Herbal Root Prebiotic Electuaries
1 1/2 parts (1 1/2 tsp) dried burdock root powder, Arctium lappa
1 part (1 tsp) dried dandelion root powder, Taraxacum officinale
1 1/2 parts (1 1/2 tsp) dried chicory root, powder, Cichorium intybus
1 1/2 parts (1 1/2 tsp) dried marshmallow root powder, Althaea officinalis
1 part (1 tsp) cacao powder, Theobroma cacao
1/8 part (1/8 tsp) dried ginger powder, Zingiber officinale
2 1/2 parts (2 1/2 tsp) organic maple syrup (approximately)
Grind herbs in a spice grinder to a fine powder. Mix all ingredients together, adding the maple syrup gradually to form a thick paste. With hands roll into 1/4 inch round, small balls.

Sources for dried herbs

Please SHARE this episode with someone who may also be fascinated by herbal medicine. Help me to spread my passion for kitchen medicine and make everyone’s home a place of herbal wisdom. ?

Ways to subscribe to An Herbal Diary
* Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcast (iTunes)
* Click here to subscribe via Stitcher
* You can also subscribe via Google Play Music
* You can also subscribe via Spotify

Original music composed by Dylan Rice — singer, songwriter, guitarist.

Please be in touch!

Subscribe to my newsletter. Send me a question. Leave a comment on this episode. I would absolutely love to know you better and learn about your own experiences with herbal medicine!

Savory herbal decoctions second as broth, a vegetarian counterpart to bone broth. In contrast this herbal broth makes a lighter spring summer version. This is my spring cleanse, metabolic tonic with added immune strengthening capability. And so simple to make. ? ?

Springtime Tonic Burdock Root Broth
Herbs: 1 part = 1/2 cup
3/4 cup dried burdock root, Arctium lappa (1 1/2 parts)
1/2 cup dried dandelion leaf, Taraxacum officinale (1 part)
1/2 cup dried red clover, Trifolium pratense (1 part)
3 jujube dates, Zizyphus jujuba, chopped
Sea Vegetable:
2 tablespoon dried kombu flakes, Saccharina latissma
Fungi:
1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms, Lentinula edodes (1 part)
1/2 cup dried maitake mushrooms, Grifola frondosa (1part)
2 quarts (8 cups) water
Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot. Pour in water. Bring to gentle simmer over medium high heat. Cover with lid and turn to lowest heat setting. Simmer for 45 minutes to one hour. Turn off heat and let stand covered for 45 minutes. Strain. then store either in a glass jar or freeze for later use.

Ingredient Sources:
Herbs
Sea Vegetables
Mushrooms
Jujube Dates

Please SHARE this episode with someone who may also be fascinated by herbal medicine. Help me to spread my passion for kitchen medicine and make everyone’s home a place of herbal wisdom. ?

Ways to subscribe to An Herbal Diary
* Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcast (iTunes)
* Click here to subscribe via Stitcher
* You can also subscribe via Google Play Music
* You can also subscribe via Spotify

Original music composed by Dylan Rice — singer, songwriter, guitarist.

Please be in touch!

Subscribe to my newsletter. Send me a question. Leave a comment on this episode. I would absolutely love to know you better and learn about your own experiences with herbal medicine!

Botanical Information

Latin Name

Arctium lappa

Plant Family

Asteraceae

Part Used

Root and Seed

more to come…

Growing it

In the first year, in early spring a basal rosette of dark green leaves emerge and keep growing larger and larger that whole year until about October. The leaves begin to die back at that time and this is a good time to dig out the roots if you are doing that. If you don’t do that, then the next spring a large stalk will emerge and keep growing to form the bracts with flowers which then become the burrs filled with seeds. The roots can also be harvested in the spring of this second year before the bracts and flowers come out. While its hard to dig out the roots, if you do there is much to use them for, food and medicines. But everyone recommends not even trying to process seeds, that this is just super hard to do and better to just buy.

Buying it

Characteristics

Herbal actions for burdock include alterative, diuretic, diaphoretic, bitter tonic, prebiotic, mild demulcent, mild laxative, hepatoprotective and cholagogue, lymphagogue, nutritive tonic and antioxidant. Burdock is high in carbohydrate especially as inulin. Other nutrients include healthy oils and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and chromium.

Taste

Perhaps the most important energetic consideration is the quality of an herb’s taste: burdock root has a nut like flavor from fixed oils. It’s very mildly bitter, the bitterness is mostly in the skin if eating from raw but likely will be peeled if eating so much bitter is lost in cooking. Burdock root is actually more sweet because of its carbohydrate content especially in the form of inulin and there’s just a touch of warming pungency and mineral salt due to nutrients, It has a very earthy taste, sort of like a mushroom. Burdock seed is much more pungent, acrid, diffusive, which makes it not really palatable, you won’t eat the seed for food.

Energetics

Burdock root is cooling but at the lowest spectrum almost neutral. Burdock seed is warming also at lowest spectrum almost neutral. Burdock is well balanced for temperature and for moisture as well.
Its moderately drying as bitter and diuretic, but because of its oils also slightly moistening, which is unique because can work on dryness and dampness at the same time making it a more gentle alterative
The effect that a plant has on organs and tissues helps to define how it effects their function. Burdock root is mildly tonifying and also stimulating for activity and movement of fluids in the body.

Folklore

Culinary and Cooking

One of burdock’s most endearing qualities is its versatility as food. In Japan where it’s a popular vegetable, even cultivated for eating by growing in wooden boxes to make it easier to harvest the roots instead of digging out of soil. Fresh, young burdock root is called gobo. Its used in miso soup, shaved into thin slices for salads and in a mixed vegetable dish called Nimono where its simmered in dashi broth with different vegetable mixtures such as carrots, potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, sometimes even meats and then seasoned with a sauce thats a blend of soy sauce, mirin, sake.

Burdock root would be such a great addition to Western cuisines. It’s gentle, mild and affordable, available at many farmer’s markets and even some grocery stores. Burdock can be used like carrots or parsnips – in soups, broth, stews, steamed or roasted, in stir-fries, or grated for salads. Because burdock root isn’t as sweet as a carrot and has a more earthy mushroomy medicinal flavor, its better mixed into vegetable blends instead of eating plain, especially when roasted with potatoes and sweet potatoes drizzled with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

Burdock makes an especially nourishing broth that can then be used to cook with, like rice, quinoa, couscous, even noodles or used as you would any other broth. It can also be pickled, which is really good because you then get the prebiotic inulin and probiotic fermented benefits combined.

Experienced foragers also peel and eat the young second year flowering stalks. The young, spring leaves are also edible but very bitter.

Beneficial Qualities and Traditional Uses

Burdock is an herb that truly supports the metabolic processes of our body.
Metabolic process is a bit of a vague term but its really the purpose behind eating. Food travels through us, from mouth down esophagus to stomach then small intestine then large intestine. Along the way it encounters many enzymes, which through a series of chemical reactions break the food down to molecules that can be absorbed for nutrients and energy. During this process, there are also substances that are separated out, that our body does not need and that then need to be eliminated. Here’s where the liver chimes in and prepares these unwanted substances for elimination. There are different pathways for this elimination, if the substance is water soluble it will go to the kidneys and come out as urine. If fat soluble, then the gall bladder gets involved and these substances will end up on bowel movements. The skin and the lymphatic system also play a role. This is all metabolism and when it all works, it’s amazing. But there are also a lot of factors that can mess it up, there may just be too much for one of the players to handle and things get bogged down, congested, slow, overburdened. Burdock improves metabolism by supporting all of the steps.

Burdock opens pores and promotes secretion from internal organs and external organs like skin, kidneys, urinary tract, large intestine, liver, and lymphatics. It stimulates metabolism, cleanses toxins, and helps eliminate waste products. It’s nourishing and strengthening to tissues and organs especially those that are weak and tired.

Burdock see is most impactful on skin, even more so than burdock root. It’s better for more acute conditions because it works more quickly, especially for dry scaly itchy and crusty discomforts like eczema and psoriasis. Crusty is the key symptom here, anytime that is present, burdock seed is specifically indicated. In TCM, its an important medicine for cold and flus. The Chinese name is Niu Bang Zi. Its helps to relieve scratchy painful sore throats and irritating coughs. Its best used as a tincture because as a tea it doesn’t taste very good although it can be added to formulas with better tasting herbs. In TCM it may be stir-fried brown first and then decocted as a tea to help release some of its medicinal compounds.

Herbal Preparations

Decoction

Fresh or dried roots – 1 tablespoon for each 1 cup water, simmer 45 min to 1 hour, then steep for 45 minutes and strain.

Powder

Tincture

Use a 1:4 ratio, 1 part fresh or dried burdock root to 4 parts of 30% ETOH, you want lower alcohol percentage because then the water soluble constituents can also be extracted.

plate of cookies

ingredients

burdock infusing in honey

cookie close up

Baking carrot cake likely popularized during food rationing when savvy women cooked creatively for their families. In wartime especially, scarce sugar, among other ingredients, left bakers exploring substitutes and cleverly they turned to the garden. Carrots are notoriously sweet. About fifteen years ago, when the glycemic index gained influence as a tool for avoiding foods that could increase blood sugar, carrots were targeted creating confusion over the whole concept. How could vegetables be less a healthy choice than sugar? Reality proved the idea silly. Root vegetables are concentrated in carbohydrate because one of their basic functions is nutrient storage to maintain a plant’s life. So, yes, roots are sweet but phytonutrient packed sweet, obviously a stellar choice.

It makes perfect sense to bake with roots. Logic supports decreasing sugar by replacement with root vegetables. It is also a delicious way to elevate fiber, micronutrients and antioxidants. The combination of two sweet roots in these carrot burdock cookies emphasizes my Herbal Bake Shoppe vision. Purposeful baking for good taste, health, and benefit while incorporating herbs and vegetables or fruits. Bringing herbalism into the kitchen, discovering how pleasant it can be to eat plants.

I did not have fresh burdock root, only dried, so I infused it in honey to extract flavor and medicinal good, then mixed it with organic carrots from my CSA (community supported agriculture). Everyone raved about these cookies, which surprised me. But then I was happy.

In Japan, burdock root use parallels common carrots in the US. Some quick facts on burdock root: In Japan it is called gobo. This taproot resembles a long white carrot, but tastes similar to an artichoke. Perhaps the best known preparation of gobo is slicing to slivers and pickling in vinegar eaten as a side for sushi. It is also steamed as a vegetable, shredded or chopped for adding to stews, stir-fries or soups, and sliced into baked chips. A significant source of fiber and potassium, gobo has additional long history of traditional use as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and blood detoxifier. In the US, to purchase fresh gobo or burdock root, farmer’s markets or Asian grocery stores are the best bet. If dried burdock root is the only option make tea or try infusing it in honey to bake a cookie.

Because some ingredients may be hard to find, links are provided to make buying easier. I may earn a small commission for some of the product links in this recipe. Your purchase will lend support to this website at no further cost to you. Big love and thanks for that.