I decided to pick some dandelion greens this evening. I’ve never eaten them before, and I wanted to try them. See what the fuss was about. I quickly filled the basket from my salad spinner with bunches of the long, narrow scalloped leaves that I plucked from the unkempt flower beds in my front yard.
If you’ve never picked dandelion greens before and decide to do so, I caution against picking ones that grow between sidewalk cracks or along sidewalks, as those are likely to have been peed on by a dog. I do recommend running lots of cold water over the dandelion greens you do pick, giving the wet leaves a good twirl in your salad spinner, rinsing the bowl of your salad spinner between twirls, and then repeating that process two or three times to make sure you get all of the dirt off the greens. I couldn’t get over the amount of muddy water that collected in my salad spinner after my first whirl.
I sampled a leaf while I was wrapping them up in a damp paper towel to store in my fridge. The flavor was mild at first, perhaps a bit citrusy, but as my teeth macerated the leaf, the taste grew increasingly, powerfully bitter. “Blech,” I said.
It’s a funny thing, eating weeds.
Do you like dandelion greens? How do you eat them? I, for one, am going to need a lot of Cheez Whiz to get these greens down.
