When you see a beautiful flowering plant, you want to collect and keep it beside you. In short, to please your eye. Gorgeous, vibrant, powerful tokens of wild nature. But have you ever thought of eating a flower? It is actually a step forward to embracing its beauty.
This shouldn’t sound strange. People do eat plants, right? So why not eat their flowering heads then? It’s even more eco-friendly in that way.
Consider the term dandelions – or taraxacums, the scientific name for them. If you ever wondered, the answer is ‘yes’. The term has something to do with big wild cats. The name came from the French dent-de-lion, meaning ‘lion’s tooth’.
Get your dandelion drink
We know lots of recipes that utilize all parts of this plant: bottom to top. Think of roots. You can brew them like tea. Or coffee, if you will. Collect some dandelion roots, wash and chop them in a food processor. After, put them in a dehydrator until completely dry.
Then roast in a 180˚C / 350˚F preheated oven until baked but not burnt. You have a dried version of ‘tea’. All you have to do now is boil dandelion (1 tablespoon per 1 cup of water) for 15 minutes. Then strain and drink it with some cream or condensed milk.
Dandelion salad or sautéed, it is your choice
Dandelions’ green part can also be eaten: in a salad as is or sautéed.
In the first case, you’d want to find stems as young as possible. The older they get, the more bitter they become. Simply wash dandelions, chop them and add to your favorite salad.
Cooking, however, can eliminate some bitterness. Therefore, this method may well become your preferred one. Blanch the greens for 40 seconds in a rolling boil. Then transfer them to a preheated pan with some olive oil and crushed garlic. Sauté the dandelions for 3 minutes. Serve with eggs and bacon on top of buttered toast – or any way you like.
Get your hands on delicate fritters
As for the lion’s teeth – the flower itself – dandelions’ heads can be prepared in an interesting fashion: as fritters. All you need is to clean the flower heads. Use some basic ingredients easily found in everyone’s kitchen: flour, eggs (or vegan alternative), bread crumbs.
Imagine you are coating chicken thighs but use flowers instead. The technique is simple. Place the washed dandelions into a flour plate. Then transfer them to a plate with a beaten egg (or vegan alternative) and finish by coating with bread crumbs.
Toss the flowers into a pan with hot oil and cook them until brown, just as you would do with the chicken. Serve with (vegan) mozzarella and drizzle with honey or maple syrup. Or make it another way. After all, you are the boss of your flowers.
What do you think?