Eat This Now: Cattail Flower Breakfast Tacos
Over the years, I've cooked cattail flowers (Typha spp.) every which way. I've even made cattail flower ice cream. This season, one recipe stood out as my favorite, and I made it nearly every other day for as long as the crop would allow, cattail flower breakfast tacos.
To learn more about collecting and preparing cattail flowers, click through to this older post. Cooked, stripped cattail flowers keep in the fridge for a solid week, which makes this an quick and easy recipe to prepare if you've already got them on hand.
You can omit the bacon in this recipe, or substitute the crumbling cheese with melting cheese. Whatever you do, don't switch out the corn tortillas. The flavor of cattail flowers is echoed in the corn tortillas, and that harmony is what makes this dish truly special. If you don't have access to pliable and tender fresh corn tortillas, older ones can be heated for a 30 seconds each on the stovetop burner (gas or electric) then wrapped in a kitchen towel until they are ready to be filled.
Cattail Flower Breakfast Tacos
prepared and stripped cattail flowers
eggs
milk
salt
pepper
bacon grease
your favorite allium (onion or garlic, wild or not), chopped
cooked bacon strips
queso fresco
corn tortillas
1. In a small bowl, whisk up your eggs, along with a splash of milk and some salt and pepper with a fork. Stir in approximately an equal volume of prepared and stripped cattail flowers. No need to be fussy, just eyeball it. I've found that two small farm eggs make three good-sized tacos.
2. Heat a skillet to medium and add enough bacon grease to cook the eggs. Add the allium and let it cook until it is fragrant and translucent.
3. Dump the egg and cattail flower mixture into the skillet, and cook it just like you would scrambled eggs, stirring and fluffing until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
4. Immediately divide the eggy cattails into your tortillas. Top each taco with a slice of bacon, a bit of crumbled cheese, and a slice of avocado if you have it. Serve right away.
