I found this really wicked awesome dandelion cookbook on Amazon that I wanted badly, but turns out the publishers don't like us Canadians so I couldn't buy it!!
Not cool at all.
So I had to make my own versions of the recipes in there. :)
I found I had a surplus of these in my lawn:
WHAT??!
Yes, that is just a teeny tiny portion of the millions of yellow dandelions that populate my grassy fields.
So, no joke, I sent my kids out to pick me a 5 gal bucket of them.
Then I froze them.
Yup I did.
I stuck those little babies in my freezer for later so I can pull them out and use them for tea in the winter. (and yes, my Mom already mocked me for the fact that I felt I had to preserve dandelions!)
Then the next day I realized I froze all of them!
Ooops.
Sent the kids back out again.
Filled another 5 gal bucket. This time I kept them out of the freezer, and not to miss the mocking, but because I wanted to make a few things.
First I put a bunch in oil so I could have dandelion infused oil to make salves and soap out of.
Then, I took my handsome helper boy out and did this:
Seperate the yellow from the green.
Dig your finger in so the green splits in half.
Gently pull the yellow parts apart.
You should end up with yellow in one hand (if you teased it right out of the green) and a green part in the other.
Then you get a lovely bowl of yellow fluff.
We needed this for a couple things. My boy wants me to make some cupcakes with them and he really wanted me to make pancakes:
They were interesting.
Dandelion flowers have a sort of peppery, flower taste to them. It added a little chew as well to the pancakes.
All I did was added a couple of handfuls of the beautiful yellow to my regular pancake batter and mixed it in well. Cooked the same and everything.
Kids all thought I was fancy gourmet!
Speaking of gourmet...
This may look a little nasty, but it was so good!
This is dandelion pasta!
Here is a simple pasta to make that will surprise your kids and make you feel super fancy.
Dandelion Pasta
5 C Flour
pinch of salt
Pour onto clean counter and make a well in center of it. Add:
3 Eggs
6 C Dandelion greens blended with a tiny bit of water (I just did this in my blender)
Mix until well incorporated.
Roll as thin as you can (if you have a pasta maker use it, but if not, do your best with a rolling pin), add to water that is at a rolling boil. Boil until tender (about 5 min). Serve with butter, salt and pepper or your favorite sauce.
Try it, you will like it!
Cheers
5 comments:
wow! my dandelions just get mowed over. You are amazing!
I was just reading about eating dandelions in a self sufficent living book I picked up! This is awesome! I was a little daunted by the prep and the fact that I may have missed the best time to harvest these but your post makes it seem so easy! I've seen people put the flowers in salad. Have you ever tried them that way? Heard they are a little bitter similar to arougala (sp?)
You.Rock. Seriously!! I feel like I am doing an awesome job with food storage when I buy extra canned goods at the grocery store and you freeze dandelion's to make soaps and salves....I am taking baby steps, but I am taking notes from your long jumps! Thank you for sharing all your amazingness!!!
I love my dandelion salve! Make sure to put a coffee filter and rubber band over it, not a regular lid. Since there is moisture in the flowers, closing off the air flow to the oil/flowers will result in mold ... Yep, had it happen :)
SOUNDS awesome! :-) Thanks for the inspiration.
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