I was pulling dandelions in the garden yesterday (Again! Is there no end to them?) when I suddenly remembered a family outing a
few years ago to Roundhay Park near Leeds. We took a break from our rambling to
visit the little café by Waterloo Lake. Heather ordered a spotty-dotty biscuit
(a cookie with M&Ms) and John had a dandelion and burdock soda. The label
on the bottle claimed it was a popular drink with temperance bars in the late
1890’s. After I tossed the last dandelion (until tomorrow) into the rubbish, I
went online to see if there were other recipes that use these horrid weeds. I
found dozens, including dandelion pesto, linguine with dandelions and mussels,
and curried lentil/dandelion soup. Essentially you can use fresh dandelion
greens anywhere you’d use kale or spinach. You just need to pick them while
they’re tender, before flowers appear. And, of course, you mustn’t use
pesticides or herbicides.
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