I wanted to try some dandelion greens, since my mother loved them and once a year when visiting her New Hampshire family, they’d pick dandelions fresh and cook them up for all to enjoy. She looked forward to that every year.
I bought a bunch at the local market – small bunches they were – at 4.00$ each, and I still had to prep them for bad leaves. Well, cooking them was impossible. I just could not get them tender. I researched cooking methods prior to starting and they all basically said the same thing. Saute in oil a few minutes. Well, these dandelions were having nothing to do with a few minutes. And everybody online raved like my mother did.
Look, these were labeled organic, but when comparing my dandelions in hand to photos on the internet, mine were a really dark green and very firm, almost waxy.
At first, I tried to fry just a few leaves in oil as a test. They almost immediately became gelatinous, and nearly disappeared in the pan, but were impossible to chew.
Finally, I made a thin mustard sauce and cooked them in that, thinking they needed some liquid to soften them up. Again. No.
I then transferred them to a saucepan and watered the sauce even more, covered and cooked them that way – at least 20 minutes. Again. No.
I threw them out. They were unchewable greens. I don’t doubt that they were dandelion greens, just not what I expected. These photos I took made them look good enough to eat, but the tender chew was not there. The simple recipe I developed for the mustard sauce I will use with some other greens, because that was excellent.
This is where I separate myself from a certain pack of online posters. If I don’t like the recipe, I don’t care how good the photos turn out, I’m not going to use it. In future, I’ll look for light green leaves and stay away from the dark green – at least as far as dandelions go.
But I’m not planning on trying them again any time soon.
I’d rather look at them in the grass.
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