Dandelion Salad

Spring is just around the corner here in North America and that means dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing will soon be available. Although most consider dandelion to be a curse to a well manicured lawn the plant makes a wonderfull salad and is full of vitamins. Dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing is an old spring classic in this part of Pennsylvania, Make sure you pick when the leaves are young, before the dandelion sprouts a bloom. In fact dandelion greens are sold in farmer's markets around here. The receipe below is one of many. It can be used on other green salads as well.

Enough young dandelion leaves for 4 to 6 salads
5 pieces of bacon and drippings
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tbs flour
3 Tbs apple cider vinegar
5 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs yellow mustard
black pepper
1 hard boiled egg
Directions
Wash the dandelion leaves really well. Spin to dry and set aside.
Fry the bacon and remove from the pan. Pour out about half of the drippings.
Mix the water, flour, vinegar, sugar, mustard and black pepper together in a bowl.
Add the mix to the remaining bacon drippings in the pan and cook over medium heat until thick. You may need to adjust the sugar to taste the dressing should be sweet enough to counter the bitterness of the dandelion greens (dip a leaf in the dressing to test the taste).
Pour the dressing over the dandelion greens while still hot. Crumble the bacon on top.

That sounds really good. Thanks! :munchies:

Good stuff. I too like Dandelion in my salad. Add some Purslane for a little crunch or some Nasturtium if you like a peppery taste. I made some Dandelion flower fritters a couple of years ago and wasn't too impressed. Seemed pretty bland but okay otherwise. Good post!

My wife and I enjoy dandelions as well. You can eat more than just the springs leaves though.

Shortly after the dandelions sprout their young leaves, the closed flower buds will emerge. They are pea-sized and delicious in a salad. Pick them before their stems get long.
Later in the season, the yellow parts of the flowering head can be gathered, removed, and used as high-fibre and slightly sweet filler for pancakes.

My wife adding dandelion petals to a pancake batter
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/...psc6ed2b99.jpg

Hope this helps,
- Martin

I love the greens, but if you're allergic to any daisy relative, you're probably allergic to dandelion flowers. For instance, I can't drink much of the Sobe products because they use echinacea in so many of them. Therefore, dandelion wine and tea does bad things to me and I recently had to give away a whole jar of dandelion jelly that I bought without thinking.

This seems like a golden opportunity to re-introduce our Quality Control Department. Waddayathink, Crash?

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

It's been years but we use to make dandelion jelly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ken

This seems like a golden opportunity to re-introduce our Quality Control Department. Waddayathink, Crash?

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Absolutely....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ken

This seems like a golden opportunity to re-introduce our Quality Control Department. Waddayathink, Crash?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

Absolutely....

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This link is being re-posted as a public service to all members by the Quality Control Department. We are your friends.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...lity%20Control

I use the greens like I would use lettuce. I use it also as just greensto eat.I have made wine out of the flowers. How do you make jelly out it ?

I'm not really sure on how to make dandelion jelly, my job was to pick the flowers and to eat the jelly.
here is a link that is probably very similar
http://www.prairielandherbs.com/dandelionjelly.htm

Thank you that will help alot .Sound like a good one to try .

I had to laugh at the well manicured lawn comment in the original post. When the wife and I first started dating, she came out by my place to snoop around. Back then I NEVER mowed the lawn. She asked me later if I lived in the house at the end of such and such road with the 3 foot grass in the yard LOL.