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Andrew's ingredient of the month -- Dandelion

To some they're the scourge of the garden, to others a blessing. If you don't already love these slightly bitter greens, you're in for a surprise. Wild or cultivated, dandelion greens are a delicious, versatile and exceptionally healthy vegetable.

By Andrew Chase, Homemakers Magazine Food editor

Make a traditional French salad with tender young dandelion greens dressed with a vinaigrette with bacon or cured pork (lardons), sometimes served with a poached egg, as in Salade Lyonnaise, or hard-cooked eggs. In Korea they are part of seasonal spring "panchan" (side dishes, such as kimchee). The greens are salted until wilted, rinsed and drained, then tossed in a sauce of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, hot red pepper, sesame seeds, sugar, garlic and green onions.

The tender young leaves can spruce up any mixed green salad. Try adding just a handful to your next salad and you'll be surprised at their lively and appealing flavour.

Nutritional value of dandelions
Dandelion greens are one of the healthiest greens around. Raw greens are low in calories, high in fibre, an exceptionally high source of vitamin A, a very good source of vitamins C, E, K, B6, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, iron, potassium and manganese; cooked greens have a similar nutritional profile as well.

The entire dandelion plant is edible. The flowers are used to make an attractive and tasty floral jelly and to make homemade wine, once a common household drink in Canada and the United States. The long tap roots can be used raw or cooked as a vegetable (personally, I don't hold them in high esteem), but are generally used as a tonic, especially for liver and kidney functions.

The root is mildly diuretic, hence the flower's other name in French and in rural England ("pissenlit" or, in English, "pissabed", the meaning of which is obvious). Harvest the roots early in the season or after a frost (I've found them still unpalatably bitter at both seasons, but many people swear that they can be sweet and tasty, like a slightly bitter salsify).

Andrew Chase is Homemakers Magazine's food editor, the author of The Asian Bistro Cookbook (Robert Rose, 1997), The Blender Bible (Robert Rose, 2005) and co-author of 400 Blender Cocktails: Sensational Alcoholic And Non-alcoholic Cocktail Recipes (Robert Rose, 2006). Subscribe to Homemakers Magazine and don't miss any of Andrew's recipes and menus.