Dandelion "Coffee"

I was working in the garden yesterday, and pulled up this gorgeous dandelion root. 

I hadn't thought it was time yet to be harvesting the roots, however this one inspired me to do a quick first harvest of the summer. 

I pulled up a good handful, which was easy after all this rain, and went to working making them into "coffee" grounds.

These roots are full of lots of vitamins, and when roasted, create a drink very similar to coffee, and very delicious. 

So, this is how you do it.

First I picked a small bunch of roots, cleaned off the dirt, and let them dry. 

Then I roughly chopped the roots, and chopped them more finely in a food processor. Next I roasted the chopped roots. I had just a small bunch (really just a cup or two of "coffee"s worth) so this time I pan roasted the roots.

I keep a dry pan on low heat on the stove top until the roots have changed from off-white, to a rich brown colour, and give off a strong, sweet n' smoky scent.

You could also roast much larger batches in the oven, spreading the chopped roots thinly onto baking sheets. Then roasting the baking sheets at 250 deg F for about 2 hours. This pan roasting method took me somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes.

Once roasted, I let the roots cool off a bit, then ground them more finely in a coffee grinder. I use a french press to make my "coffee" so I ground them to approximately the same texture as coarse coffee grounds. They are a different plant than coffee, and do not grind into as consistent a texture.  This doesn't affect the quality of the drink though. Note - for storage, best to store like any herb, in a glass jar out of sunlight.

From there, I prepared the roots the same as I would coffee. In this batch I put 1 tbsp per cup of coffee into my french press, added the just boiled water, and let steep for 5 - 10 minutes.






Next time I would up the amount of dandelion root to 2 tbsp, the first was a little weak for my tastes.

Then all that's left is to sip and enjoy this caffeine free alternative to coffee.

Spring's Wild Salad

Fresh Picked Dandelion Greens

The name of this blog, comes from the fact that when I created the blog address, I was eating a dinner of pasta with a blanched dandelion leaf sauce. Dandelions are a pretty amazing plant, containing high levels of vitamins and nutrients. From nutritiondata.self.com: 

"This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Folate, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Iron, Potassium and Manganese."

I had intended for the first post to be on how to collect and prepare dandelion greens, but alas, my camera did not cooperate for the photos. Today I went collecting for the second time this spring. Dandelion greens are best collected when they are young, between late April and mid-may. Afterwards the raw greens get quite tough and bitter. They can still be okay cooked throughout the summer, but the spring greens are best. (Different parts of the plant have other uses, such as the roots and flowers, at other times of the year, I'll cover this in future blog posts.) Ideally you want to collect your plants where there have been no pesticides sprayed, and the ground is fairly clean, no concentrated livestock or pets, or not so nice run-off. I am lucky, I have a huge farmyard, in which the lawn is not maintained, to gather from. That means no sprays and lots of 'weeds'.

This is today' harvest. Now that I have gathered the leaves, I prep and store them for quick and easy use in meals. First I wash the leaves in ice water, then snap off any stem that goes past the leaves, and transfer to another bowl.

I bring some water to the boil, drop the leaves in to blanch, turn off the heat, let sit for a minute or so till the leaves are soft, and strain, keeping the liquid (see below). Then I place the cooked leaves into an ice cube tray. This freezes them into easy to use blocks. Once frozen I take the dandelion cubes out of the tray, and store in the freezer in a zip lock bag. This way I can easily add this nutritious veggie to my dinners any time.

Frozen Single Serve Portions
Great to Pop Into a  Pasta or Stir Fry

As for the juice left over from cooking the leaves, add a generous amount of honey, a touch of lemon, and serve over ice for delicious dandelion lemonade.