In season through

Native range:

Quelites (Spanish, pronounced “keh-LEE-tays”), lambsquarters or wild spinach is a common garden weed with a long history of use in New Mexico.

Leaves can be eaten raw but large quantities are best cooked. Use it how you use spinach: fried with onions and garlic is a popular traditonal method.

Plants in their leafy, edible phase are most abundant in spring and early summer, but they continue to germinate throughout summer and fall. In the fall, the plant's tiny green flowers, stripped off the stems and cooked, make a delicious crunchy vegetable. (In mexico, its relative huauzontle is cultivated primarily for its edible flowers.)

In Mexico, the term "quelites" refers to any wild green, including amaranth, verdolagas and more. Here in New Mexico, the word has a more specific meaning, usually referring to the common Chenopodium album. Across the rest of the USA, this plant is most commonly called lambsquarters, and it's found almost everywhere in the world.

We also have several native species, but the non-native Chenopodium album is by far the most common in disturbed areas.

One of these native species, C. berlandieri, is an ancient food throughout the Americas, independently domesticated by 4000 BC in Eastern North America as well as in Mexico as huauzontle, an important Aztec crop that is still grown today. Quinoa likely originated from the same wild species in the Andes.