It has been very warm here in Chicago so the dandelions have been growing like, well, weeds. One of my favorite spring rituals is to make salads made from the dandelions that grow in the yard. Their taste is so bright and fresh and their texture soft. It's rewarding to eat something that naturally grows abundantly, is considered a nuisance and best of all tastes delicious!
Yesterday I made a twilight harvest from our yard,
washed the leaves carefully, after all we do have a dog...
...and tossed them with a slightly sweet balsamic vinaigrette. We ate them with pasta topped with a garlicky sauce made using homegrown tomatoes from last summer, a bit of goat cheese, salt and pepper. Not bad locavore eating!
Awesome! Nance Klehm once said (as we were foraging around for food at the Magic Hedge) "I'd rather wash the dog pee off the plant rather than eat something that's been doused repeatedly with scary pesticides." I totally agree!
Posted by: Bonnie Tawse | 03/26/2012 at 02:42 PM
Thanks, for the delicious reminder about dandelion greens!
And, I like the tomato pasta and goat cheese topping....sounds really good!
I have been stove-top dry-roasting sunflower seeds and sprinkling them
with a bit of Tamari after they are taken off the heat. I eat them on almost all of my meals. I do the same with whole walnuts, toasting lightly so that
they crunch, but don't lose the majority of their vitamins through cooking.
Your photographs make me hungry!
Posted by: Anita | 03/27/2012 at 03:59 PM
I just used the dandies in our backyard, something I'd never have tried if I hadn't read this. They were delicious! What's a little lead?
Posted by: West Walker Woman | 03/27/2012 at 08:50 PM