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Regardless of its status as an unpopular garden weed, dandelion is an extremely healthy and digestible leafy vegetable and a good contribution to a healthy diet. Freshly harvested and given a fine marinade, the wild herb becomes a delicious salad in just a few minutes. If you want to make dandelion into a salad, pay close attention to where the leaves come from. When harvesting, make sure that the plants grow away from busy roads. You should also avoid harvesting dandelions growing at the edge of fields, because fertilizers and pesticides are widely applied there.
It is best to pick dandelions in your own garden. Take only the young, tender leaves for dandelion salad. Young flowers can also be eaten. Check each leaf carefully for pest infestation, and shake out the flowers thoroughly before adding them to the bowl. Dandelions can be enjoyed plain or mixed with other wild herbs such as goutweed or rocket and lettuce.
As dandelion leaves taste rather tart, it is recommended to sweeten the salad dressing slightly, depending on the recipe. This results in a harmonious balance of flavors. For decoration, fresh dandelion flowers can be added to the salad. Or you can harvest the buds, which are still closed, and deep-fry them in hot oil. Together with croutons, they make an exceptional salad topping.
The following recipes make two servings each.
Recipe: radish and dandelion salad
Ingredients
- 3 handfuls of young dandelion leaves
- 2 tablespoons (herbal) vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 tsp. honey
- 2 tsp medium hot mustard
- salt and pepper
- 4 large radishes
- 1 handful of seeds to taste (sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, etc.)
Preparation
Clean out dandelion well, rinse under cold water and cut in half if needed. Wash radishes and cut into thin slices or shave. Mix all ingredients for the dressing and pour over the salad. Mix well. Finally, add the seeds on top.
Recipe: Dandelion salad with egg and bacon
Ingredients
- 3 handfuls of young dandelion leaves
- 4 tablespoons mild vinegar
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 2 tsp medium hot mustard
- 1 shallot
- 1 egg yolk
- salt and pepper
- 3 eggs
- 50 g bacon
- 1 handful of walnut kernels
Preparation
Wash the lettuce leaves and pluck into bite-sized pieces. Finely dice the shallot. Mix with the egg yolk, mustard, vinegar and sugar. Pour in the oil in a thin stream and whisk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Boil the eggs until they are soft. Cut bacon into small cubes and fry in a pan until crispy. Place dandelion salad on plates, drizzle vinaigrette over, top with bacon, walnuts and quartered eggs.
Recipe: Dandelion salad with potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 handfuls of young dandelion leaves
- 2 tablespoons fruit vinegar (e.g. apple or raspberry)
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 tsp. sweet mustard
- 1 pinch of sugar (alternatively 1 tsp. agave syrup)
- 1 shallot
- 4 boiled potatoes
- salt and pepper
- daisies for decoration
Preparation
For this recipe, boil potatoes with a little salt and keep warm. Wash and clean the dandelion leaves. Drain the water or spin the leaves. Finely dice the shallot. Mix with vinegar, oil, mustard and sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Peel the warm potatoes, cut into pieces and pour the dressing over them. Fold in the dandelion. Decorate with the daisy blossoms. A special flavor is obtained when you prepare this salad with a good pumpkin seed oil.
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