Take off like a rocket: wild or cultivated, arugula makes for spicy salad leaves | Salad
Take off like a rocket: wild or cultivated, arugula makes for spicy salad leaves
This article is more than 3 years oldWhen home-grown and eaten fresh, rocket is a world away from mild varieties you’ll find in loose-leaf salad mix. Once you adjust, you won’t go back
Rocquette, arugula, sylvetta, rucola, eruca sativa – the list of names for what we commonly call rocket in Australia is long and confusing. But the difference is easily explained: the bright green salad leaf is indeed two different species under the mustard family.
The diversity of names is due to the plants’ many provenances. Originally found through western Asia, Europe and North America, they are now easily grown the globe over, with cultivars and wild seeds naturalised to both hot and cold climates.
Whatever name you choose, the one defining thing is that when grown well, picked close to the time of eating and not stored for long they are some of the spiciest of salad leaves going. They make a fantastic alternative to the raw salad leaves – though they are just as lovely briefly cooked by sautéing, or thrown into a soup last minute and used like a soft herb.
Pungent and mustardy they are often tamed by inclusion in loose salad mixes. Many commercial salad mixes are grown hydroponically which can also explain the milder flavour.
The first time I grew rucola selvatica (a cultivar suited to our warmer climes) on our farm, I had trouble selling it. A few chefs started off keen but had so many complaints they stopped ordering it. I was perplexed – I didn’t quite understand why.
“It’s too strong – the diners are sending back their salad,” was the general complaint.
I still didn’t understand. Isn’t this what rocket was supposed to taste like, so peppery and crisp that all you needed to add was olive oil, salt and a squeeze of citrus – eaten to cut the fat of whatever you were having alongside it?
Obviously not.
I got down to researching. What generally gets marketed as rocket or arugala is actually many different cultivars of eruca sativa. Many have large, broad leaves with dark-veined, dainty cream-coloured flowers. They grow vertically with mature leaves standing upright, as broad and outstretched as my hand – much like a lettuce. These are known as “slow bolt broad leaf rocket” and do very well in warmer climes. They are easy to grow, even in drought conditions. I should mention that even within this cultivar there are many varieties.
A difference between these and the other variety is that eruca sativa tend to be annuals, where as the diplotaxis tenuifolia – often sold as wild rocket – can be a perennial if protected from frost. They have thinner serrated arrow-shaped leaves that pop up in random spots around your garden years after you initially sow them.
These are better known as selvatica or sylvetta. In the right climate they are a hardy perennial crop, seemingly impossible to kill, but with a gentle nature that can co-exist quite happily as ground cover, sharing space with mint and other perennial crops.
They are shade loving in general but can tolerate sun. Given a little moisture they do well and have a territorial manner, but they can easily be cut back and their growth redirected.
When temperatures soar they tend to start getting leggy and prone to bolting, their leaves become smaller and their flowers more abundant. I don’t save seeds, as I find that they self sow quite readily when the conditions are ripe. Which explains why they’re often referred to as wild rocket.
It’s important to keep in mind that home-grown rocket won’t taste like anything you buy at shops, one reason being that eating something close to the time it is picked, or straight off the plant, makes the taste much stronger – especially the older, larger leaves. This is due to the high presence of anti-oxidants like glucosinolates, polyphenols, carotenoids and vitamin C.
If it is too unpalatable then flash cooking it will help tame the pepperiness, which can also be mellowed with the addition of a fat, like olive oil, and citrus or vinegar. Though I guarantee once you have had it a couple of times, your palate adjusts and you will not be able to go back to store-bought.
I love pairing it in a salad with a contrast of flavours like roasted sweet potato and a miso vinaigrette, which is my go-to when I have leaves that can stand up to punchy flavours.
Rocket, rocquette, arugula, sylvetta, rucola, eruca sativa – call it by whatever the name you choose, but next time you are buying seeds give it a go and watch the pollinators increase in your garden.
Rocket, roasted sweet potato with miso vinaigrette
Serves 2
1 tbsp organic red miso
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ shallot finely diced
1 tbsp dijon mustard
½ tsp grey salt
2 tbsp chardonnay vinegar or sherry vinegar
1 tbsp honey
2 packed cups of rocket washed and spun dry in a salad spinner
1 medium purple or red sweet potato, halved
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ unwaxed organic lemon
Cover the sweet potato in olive oil, sprinkle with salt, wrap it in foil and roast it at 180°C for two to three hours. After it is soft, take off the foil and roast for another 30 minutes until the surface has caramelised.
Whisk all the dressing ingredients together to form a thick emulsion, toss the warm roasted sweet potatoes through and then loosely, with your hands, toss through the rocket leaves.
To serve, zest the lemon rind and squeeze the lemon juice over, just before eating.
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