Hello Wild Ones, welcome to the final post on Dandelions in our Detox Wild Greens series; today I am sharing with you my recipes, and how to harvest and prepare Dandelions. I went live in the app this morning to create a video of how I harvest Dandelions from my garden - watch the video here to get an idea of the best way to forage Dandelions, and to see my weedy Forager’s Garden!
Harvesting
When out foraging for Dandelions, the best place to get them is your own (or a friend’s) garden or allotment. This is because you can be sure they haven’t been sprayed with weedkiller or any nasty chemicals, or soaked up pollution. If you don’t have access to a garden, or for some reason you don’t let all the weeds grow like I do (ha!) the next best place is a clean woodland site or verge. Try the tops of sloping banks for Dandelions, or get right into a verge away from a path, road or dogs’ aim, to make sure you’re picking the cleanest greens.
Harvest the leaves as I show you in the video - taking the smallest leaves from the centre of each rosette (star-shape). The larger leaves underneath are more bitter, so the fresher growth is preferable.
Harvest the whole plants as in the video (remembering to only dig up whole plants on your own land/with landowners’ permission) with a hand fork or trowel, sliding and wiggling the tool straight down into the earth vertically next to the plant, then levering it up. This allows you the best chance to get the whole root out!
If you want to make the Tempura Dandelions with whole plants, but not bother with the roots then you can lift the plants with your tool, then instead of pulling them all the way out, cut off the plant just below the root joint with scissors, pressing the root back into the soil to grow again.
The roots are fantastic - full of inulin and starches that nourish the body and balance blood sugars, and also key constituents that are bitter, and stimulate the digestive system into proper function. I like to wash them well, chop them into little rounds and dry them out in a low oven. I then use a blender to grind the dry roots and add to pancake batters, biscuits and things. It pairs well with cacao, pecan or maple syrup flavours. You can also make a coffee substitute like this and I love the nutty, bitter flavour, but you need quite a few roots to brew a pot! You can also use them fresh, chopping them up and putting them in a jar with some apple cider vinegar to infuse for 4-6 weeks. Use this bitter medicine as a spring tonic, putting a teaspoon in your water to support gut health - the Dandelion roots act as a prebiotic and the cider vinegar as a probiotic.
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