Cooking Tips

But they are very strong in taste. I have eaten the leaves in salad (lots of dressing) and sautéed the crowns in butter (almost inedible in taste) and tried both leaves and crowns in soup (very bitter and then, subsequently, very salty!). We need a cook to tell us how to make them palatable (other than waiting for the needs of the starving to outweigh the needs of the taste buds).

Offered by Roger.

I was in the "mood" for a salad last night. So, I went out into the yard and made one. I picked about 50% young dandelion leaves and 50% young Plantain leaves. Washed, patted dry and put some ranch salad dressing on them that my daughter had made up. The Plantain taste a whole lot like leaf lettuce but the dandelion was bitter, even with the dressing. They are also "leafy" to chew and not crisp like lettuce. I had to chew a few mouthfuls, it seemed, like forever and thought I would never be able to swallow that taste. But, even though I had only had one meal earlier in the day, I never got hungry until about midnight when my wife got home from work (we had some baked potatoes). My opinion is that it is an acquired taste. One that you will get used to over time. Everyone is looking for a good source of vitamin "C" and here it is growing right in your driveway. If you just want a great salad, try eating just Plantain with dressing. That's great.

Offered by Clipper.

My understanding from the "edible landscape" elist is that you can take the older leaves and you boil them and drain them several times to leach out the bitternes. Acorns are treated the same way as they have tanic acid I believe. To make acorn flour or paste you would boil and drain numerous times.

Offered by Cynthia.

One of our native dishes is a bitter melon, one can get this bitter melon fresh from a Chinese grocery store and the taste is much more bitter than anything else including those dandelion leaves, what we usually do is after the seeds were removed and the melon sliced, we marinated it in salt water for about half an hour before we stir fry them, and somehow the salt water did removed the bitterness, I believe it might work also for the dandelion leaves.

Offered by Tian.