I love the dandelion leaves for salad. They are quite delicious and easily obtainable, just go outside and pick! Commonly grown in almost all the continents save Antarctica, it is probably the freshest of all the ingredients, that is if all the other ingredients are store bought. Here are 10 more delicious ways to cook dandelion leaves.
Anyway, it is only recently that I found that the flowers also make incredibly delicious snacks. I love these flowers… Every spring to summer they bloom brightly like thousand little yellow suns on the fresh green fields. Quite artful and inspiring.
As a matter of fact, even their seeds are artful, like little bunch of parachutes mounted on an orb, then gently taking off as the slightest of a breeze carries them away. Scientifically, it's a very cool way to expand territories tbh.
Beautiful aren't they?
The once that I used were of the genus Taraxacum Officinale, growing abundantly all across UK, Europe, Asia, and american continents. However, the other abundantly found type is Taraxacum Laevigatum that grows mostly in European continent. It is edible too so don't worry if you pick it by mistake. Anyway, since I love cooking with flowers, I decided to look up recipes made with dandelions. I knew the leaves are edible as I mentioned before, but the roots are used as well to make tea and caffein-free coffee. Flowers have been used to make wine too. However, the most pleasant surprise was when I found several recipes on dandelion fritters. Needless to say I couldn't wait to try it out myself! Here's a simple and easy recipe on dandelion fritters.
Recipe:
2 Cups Dandelion Blossoms
1 Egg,beaten
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Pepper
1/4 Tsp. Herbs Oil For Frying
The procedure is pretty simple, much like any other fritters. Mmmm, fritters… Don't you just love snacks? I personally love the savoury kinds especially due to my strong Indian culture of eating savoury delectables with tea.
Step 1: Beat the egg in a bowl and then add in the flour, milk, salt, pepper and herbs. Mix well. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan. Add oil (I used olive oil) and let it heat.
Step 2: Now dip the washed dandelions, petals first, whole into the batter and then into the oil. Keep the heat to medium or else the fritters would burn quickly. The fritters take only 2-3 minutes per side to brown.
Now dip it in your favourite sauce, make a nice cup of tea and enjoy!
1. If you like mushrooms, you will love this. But be warned, the green sepals on the flowers add bitterness, so remove as much, all the while keeping the flowers intact. Or you can even blanch them whole first to remove the bitterness. I did find mine slightly bitter but that's probably cause I didn't remove any green bits, and I don't really mind the bitterness tbh.
2. Buds and full bloomed both work well. I tried both and must say they taste the same. Wash them well cause they may have sticky glue oozing from the stems, and certain little flies that could be found on them.
3. Be careful of picking flowers from dog parks or well kept gardens. More wilder the better. Sprays tend to make them quite bitter (as advised by other cooks).
RELISH!
Here is a list of websites that I drew inspiration from:
1. The Daily Spud
2. Proverbs 31 Woman
3. Virginia Wright
4. Recipe Source
5. Learningherbs.com
6. Allrecipes.com
Enjoy!
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