Ah, fresh Dandelion, once of the first spring plants ready and willing to become greens in the kitchen, I picked out four nice big plants out of my patch and into the house they came, split with cut off at the bottom, cleaned and well washed, as these were so young and tender, I didn’t blanch them, but if they were older, I might have depending on the recipe.
Then I dug out a burdock root to go with the four Dandelion roots, plus a fresh dug horseradish root and I was set to make supper..
Recipe
- One med Onion
- Four Dandelion Plants, cleaned greens and washed, peeled and striped Dandelion Root
- One carrot, peeled and sliced
- One Burdock Root, Peeled and Sliced
- One 6 inch peice of fresh Horseradish, washed, peeled and grated.
- One fresh chicken breast, sliced thin (or pork chop would work as well)
- 2 cups of cooked Brown Rice
- One Tbsp of Honey
- 1/4 cup of Soy Sauce
- 1/4 cup Rice Vinager
- Pinch of Salt, Pepper, and A big Pinch of Basil Leaves.
I took the hard veggies and the meat and cooked it in a cast iron fry pan, once meat was cooked, added in greens, rice and sauce and cooked another few min till heated though and served.. it was light, tasty and filling all in one, best of all, was the amount of fresh living plants that had been picked and used within half an hour of the meal itself.
Just another Day on the Farm 
I didn’t know dandelion roots were palatable other than as a coffee substitute. There are some monsters in our garden, so will do a little experimenting. You really are a wealth of knowledge!
Hi Queen
I would not recommend the big roots for eating, they are better for the coffee, if they are big enough to have a kind of woody feel to the middle, don’t use as root veggie, but the smaller ones that around finger size or up to a ring size of about 10 are great, I would not want to eat just them, but some do like them boiled with butter and salt, but I like mine in a mix.. but for sure give them a try, I like them with sweet/sour glazes or spicy sticky glazes but that is just me.
What a giant dandelions you must have! For me, when I find one as big as my little finger, it ís a big one! And like Queen I never thought about eating them as a vegetable. Some day after weeding my garden I will give it a try.
Hi Heidi
Its my understanding that most of the wild Dandelions in canada at this time are of the Russian version, and yes they get quite a bit bigger both in size and tap root then what is referred to here as French Dandelion, which is what I say on my own trip to holland years ago.
Its a funny twist of fate, our garden catalogs now “sell” use seeds for French Dandelion to grow in our greens area of the garden, which is just funny to me consider that the wild versions grow coast to coast already.
Do give it a try, I think you will be surprised at how useable they are
In the coffee shop today an old gentleman was talking about his mother making dandelion green salad with pig weed and sour cream,salt,sugar and black pepper dressing and although my mouth started to water a group of younger women were poo-pooing his tale, myself and one other woman spoke up and said we had eaten the same as kids and I still love that dressing in the summer over a big bowl os sliced cucumbers and eat with fresh bread. A real feast on a hot day and no need to start the stove. My dad loved this and often ate most of a loaf of bread with the sopping up as he called it., and then back out to the field.
I remember grandma making that salad dressing, it was very tasty and yes on sliced cucumbers it was devine. Fresh bread goes with everything LOL
Interesting, I don’t seem to have a lot of wild pigweed on the farm, I might have to go hunting and import some for a patch, I would be interested in seeing what the flavor combo would be like.
Those younger ladies don’t know what they are missing, so many folks don’t realize that what we call weeds can be what others call really good food!
Hello, I was taught that by definition “a weed is a plant that’s growing where it is unwanted”… so one person’s weed is another’s goldmine. Pigweed is also known as Amaranth and is highly valued in many countries, but treated like a weed by most here in Ontario.
I can’t wait for the wild Asparagus and Lamb’s Quarters to come up, but in the meantime will have to make do with the bitter herbs of the Spring Tonic. Thank you for your recipe today to make them a lot more palatable!
Hi Deb
Thanks for visiting the site and for your comments, I am quite looking forward to some fiddle heads, glad you liked the recipe.
I have the tall “French Dandelion” in my garden. It was sold under the name of Chicory-Catalogna by Plantation Products of Norton, MA. I have used it in salad at near the 75% level and found it a little too hardy. Now I still have 25 plants in the garden and would like to cook it like spinach, so I would like a recipe to use as cooked spinach.
Answer: If you are finding that your greens are to strong, you will need to give them a blanch in boiling water for a min or two to help draw out that first row of bitterness, then use like you would any spinach in any dish, if you need to you can do a second water blanch, some things require a couple blanch outs but for us, I have never needed to do more then one with the green you are talking about.