Weed dishes woo hard-up Germans

The perfect base for a low-budget salad? Just be sure to wash it first

A cookery book which includes recipes using stale bread and roadside weeds has become a huge best-seller in Germany.

Hartz IV - A Cookbook For Hard Times shows how to make meals such as "Poor Man's Parmesan" and dandelion salad. It has sold out in Berlin and the publisher has already started reprinting it.

The book is designed for impoverished Germans hit by the country's tough labour market reforms. It takes its name from Peter Hartz, the businessman behind Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's controversial reforms.

"We noticed among our friends that people don't go out so often - they like staying at home and cooking," Sigrid Ormeloh, who wrote the book with Nicole Schlier, told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"Both of us were affected by the latest reforms, and we were looking for new projects, new ideas.

"We were thinking, what could we cook really well and also make ends meet? And so the idea was born."

Car park rocket

The Hartz IV book promises "cheap but tasty recipes which are easy to prepare," and which can feed a family of four for less than five euros (£3.30).

It recommends replacing meat with vegetables - as in "Celery Wiener Schnitzel" - and outlines how to make the best use of roadside weeds as a cost-effective way of ensuring the recommended daily intake of greens.

There have been protests over the belt-tightening reforms

Rocket, for example, is often found at the edge of car parks, while dandelion leaves should be washed in warm water to remove the bitter taste.

A stale old loaf, the authors suggest, can be put to work in a bread omelette.

The book's recipes came from a number of different sources. Some were from Ms Schlier's family, but others came from an old wartime cookbook - a previous period of German austerity.

The Hartz reforms came into effect in January, and have seen previously generous welfare benefits slashed for Germany's almost five million unemployed.

Ms Ormeloh explained that both she and Ms Schlier had been affected - which prompted them to write the book.

"Both were working in creative arts with only short contract work," she said.

"We will never get into social security contracts again."