Spicy Fried Dandelion Flowers – Recipe

Dandelions, Taraxacum officinale , are the bane of many a gardener’s life. They pop up everywhere, their happy flower heads cheekily appearing in the lawn, in the borders and even in the driveway. They are however nice flowers, they spread like a golden coat over the spring green fields at this time of year. Soon their fluffy seedheads will take to the wind, only to settle in gardens, roadsides and fields. There the seeds will germinate and grow a deep tap root that breaks when gardeners pull them out. Even a small portion of the root remaining in the soil can grow back to taunt us. Well, revenge never tasted so good…

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 30 dandelion flowers, collected when fully open and fresh. When foraging for wild food, do not collect flowers, leaves or fruits from beside busy roads, or areas where they are exposed to possible pollution.
• ½ cup of flower, we used wholegrain spelt.
• ½ teaspoon of cumin
• ½ teaspoon of coriander
• ½ teaspoon of paprika
• pinch of chili powder
• salt and pepper
• oil for frying, we used rapeseed oil.

Method:

1. Remove the green calyx from the backs of each flower (that is the green leafy bits attached to the base of the flower).
2. Wash the flowers in cold water. Don’t dry them.
3. Mix spices in a bowl with the flour.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan.
5. Dip each flower into the flour and spice mixture and place flower side down on the pan, about 2-3 minutes.
6. Fry until golden brown and turn the flowers over, let them brown, another 2 minutes.
7. Remove from the pan and drain on a sheet of kitchen towel.
8. Eat immediately, savour the flavour and think of all the dandelions that wont be growing in your garden next year!

A tasty snack in the evening after pulling weeds in the garden for a few hours.

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