Adventure 33: Dandelion will make you wise

Prince or pauper, beggar man or thing

Play the game with ev'ry flower you bring

Dandelion don't tell no lies

Dandelion will make you wise

Tell me if she laughs or cries

Blow away dandelion

- Rolling Stones

Dandelions = cheap, plentiful, free food. 

With all the sunshine last week (and trying to put off all my marking as long as possible before term starts) I headed over to the island in the Exe near my house with a bag and looking a bit like a mad, cat lady picked half a carrier bag full of dandelion flowers. You can eat all the dandelion - the leaves (free salad), the roots (make caffeine free coffee) and flowers which is what I was concentrating on. They're just so beautiful and yellow! 

The pain staking part was separating the leaves from the recepticle (the green bit at the bottom holding it all together) which took a good hour (made longer by me finding the courage to put the spider I found outside without screaming) but I did end up with a beautiful yellow tray of petals with which I could start cooking!

Recipe 1: Dandelion Burgers 

(based on:  http://www.prairielandherbs.com/dandelionburgers.htm)

1 cup dandelion flowers 

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt 
1/4 cup chopped red onions onions
1/4 tsp mixed herbs
1 egg
fresh ground pepper

Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately, then mix together to form a batter and fry in a pan. 

Verdict: fairly tasty, without onions and spices would have been bland but the dandelions really mesh all the ingredients together and provide a great alternative to quorn or potato based veggie burgers

Recipe 2: Dandelion Bread 

(based on: http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/dandy-muffins-and-bread.html)

2 cups white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dandelion petals
4 tbsp honey
1 egg

mix ingredients together and spoon into muffin cases, cook at 220 °C for 20 minutes

Verdict: sweet and tasty with butter and a bowl of carrot and coriander soup! Will make this one again.

Recipe 3: Dandelion Syrup

(based on: http://www.ediblewildfood.com/dandelion-syrup.aspx)

Boil dandelion petals for 15 minutes and sieve out the petals

For every pound of liquid add a pound of sugar and a dash of lemon juice

Reduce down (when it gets white bubbles on the top, I know I'm pretty much done

Cool in a tub in the fridge

Verdict: much nicer and more subtle than golden syrup/maple syrup and great on Greek yogurt in the mornings.

Will keep you updated when I finally get on to experimenting with leaves and roots! Ta rah!