Who else uses dandelion leaves

It's well documented that dandelion leaves are edible. Many say they are in fact bitter and horrible unless blanched. I think that just means people have used them in the wrong way for them.

I've taken to adding chopped dandelion leaves to pasta sauces, soups etc. It's delicious. And wife and two kids don't seem to complain.

Anyone else?

 

Hi Clueless,

Dandelion and Burdock pop is the only way I've tried it.

It's lovely, way better than Coca-Cola

 

I've tended to add them to the compost.
But I have heard you can make coffee from the roots if roasted and ground.

 

I had an American gardening book, and it had two pages on cultivation of Dandilions,
It has become one of the books I regret ditching,
The other was an 1895 encyclopedia of plants and herbs and how to use them as medicine :-(

 

I have an 1884 Suttons book on The Culture of Vegetable and Flowers and Dandelion is mentioned. Seed should be sown in May or June in rows 1ft apart and thinned out to 1ft between plants. Soil should be well drained and only the thick leaved sort should be sown. Roots can be lifted and forced in winter and in any case they should be blanched or the leaves will be bitter.

 

I just find some in the garden. No messing about. I see it as a free, zero maintenance flower and crop.

Sure the leaves are a bit bitter. But added in the last minute or so of cooking a pasta dish, that bitterness really brings all the other flavours to life.

I also add some when I'm making pizza, plain old cheese on toast, and of course mixed salad garnish.

 

It's the young, fresh leaves that are least 'bitter'; the older the leaf, the more bitter it becomes.

 

I make coffee out of the roasted roots. It's lovely with milk and 2 sugars

Tried blanching the leaves, there's a reason why they're bitter, when they're not, slugs eat the lot

 

My mother used to say that when she was little she would make sandwiches with Dandelion leaves ... she never said whether or not they were bitter. It would have been in the 1920s and 30s. The kids around where she lived would pick them from the lane behind their house. I don't suppose they had to worry about them being sprayed with anything in those days.