Dent-de-lion

Friday I spent some quality time with one of my favorite spring plants, the Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale).  If you've been following along with me, you know that I've been including the leaves of this lovely plant in my spring salads over the past couple weeks.  I love them in the early spring because they aren't very bitter.  They still have that "dandelion" taste, but no where near as bitter it will be in a few weeks. 

Before I get into what awesome dish I made with my dandelion, I want to talk a little bit about it -  what it is and why you should eat it.

For starters, the dandelion is a perennial, herbaceous plant with very deeply toothed leaves.  These "toothed" leaves are where it gets its name, dent de lion, meaning "lion's tooth" in old French.  While many people feel the dandelion is an annoying weed worthy of the worst kinds of weed killer, it is interesting to note that they were introduced by Europeans, particularly in the Midwest, in order to provide spring food for the honey bees.
Dandelions have since become well adapted to "disturbed" habitats and adverse circumstances, wide spread and more difficult to exterminate than most other competing "weeds" - but I'm sure you already knew this!

Why would anybody want to eat this lowly, annoying weed?  Well, for starters it is higher in beta carotene than carrots.  It has a ridiculously high iron and calcium content as well as vast amounts of B vitamins, C, E, P, and D, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc.  Not to mention the fact that it grows virtually everywhere, so you don't have to make a trip to the store or spend any money to obtain it!  (Although they do sometimes sell dandelion greens at the grocery store.)

A lot of people do not like the taste of dandelion because it is bitter.  Well, yes, yes it is.  But that bitter is good for you.  That bitter helps your stomach produce more hydrochloric acid, which not only aids in better digestion, but helps your body absorb more calcium from you food as well as help against an upset stomach.

Dandelion greens also help increase the amount of blood and water waste eliminated by your kidneys and urine.  This will help decrease fluid swelling and congestion.
I could go on and on about the wonders of dandelion - I have a few more recipes I'll be making in the coming weeks so I'm sure we'll get into dandelion more... - but for now I want to get to my yummy dandelion dish!

Yay for Dandelion greens!
The first thing I did was go into my yard and collect as many dandelion greens as I could.  I managed to fill a large bowl.  ** remember that when cooking greens, what seems like a lot, will cook down to not much of anything, so don't be afraid to get A LOT.**

 This was about as much as I was able to collect.  Sadly my yard isn't very big.
At this point don't worry about washing the greens, just place them in a dry 1-3 quart sauce pan (depending on how many greens you've collected.)  Boil some water in your tea kettle. 
When the water is boiling, pour it over the greens.  Stir them around for a minute or two, rinse and repeat.  I did this three times. 

At the third water change, I left the greens in the water and brought them to a boil for a couple minutes; until the greens were nice and soft.  I drained them, dumped them into a glass dish and added a little Braggs Liquid Aminos (you could us tamari or soy sauce instead) and some fresh garlic.

Tada!  Notice how much is left after cooking?  In order to make this more substantial, I wilted a ton of kale from my garden and added it.  Delicious!