You can eat that? Dandelions, a familiar lawn menace, are a versatile ingredient for soup, salad, and more

Aidan Pang’s interest in foraging started during the COVID pandemic, when people were encouraged to go for walks outside. 

Pang moved from Hawaii to Eugene eight years ago for graduate school at the University of Oregon. In Hawaii, she was familiar with the plants she saw around her, but in Oregon while on walks she would see many that were new to her. 

Dandelion, with its familiar abundance, was a plant she was familiar with.

Lowell resident Katie Neall, who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Virginia, was attracted to foraging for the sense of self-reliance it created. She didn’t have to spend money at a grocery store. 

“My parents were kind of back-to-the-landers, and nature has been a lifelong interest for me,” Neall said. “But I leveled up my interest as I got older and my kids were growing up, just to escape the whole consumer pressure thing, and to get back to my roots, our roots, to start eating as much wild food as possible.

“Some people go to the golf course or go fishing. (Foraging) is something you can do that doesn’t cost anything.”

Neall said going out into nature and looking for wild foods helps her become more in tune with what grows around her, and the change of seasons. 

“You start to know what time of year it is based on the things that you see,” she said. 

Neall forages for mushrooms, nettles, elderberries, maple blossoms, and much more. But because it is mid-May right now, dandelions are on the menu. 

Foraging safely

Truth be told, you don’t have to look very hard to find dandelions. These hardy plants grow readily across North America; you probably have some growing in your backyard right now.

Before you start eating wild foods, be sure of your identification. Dandelion, or Taraxacum officinale, is widely recognizable, but be sure you know what you’re harvesting before you eat it. 

Dandelions have long green leaves with notches along the edges — and these rows of “teeth” give dandelions their common name, which is derived from the French for “dent de lion” or literally, “tooth of the lion.”

The whole dandelion plant, from roots to seeds, are edible, but most foragers focus on the leaves, yellow flower heads, and roots.

Seek out unsprayed areas for foraging, and try to avoid areas where dogs may take bathroom breaks. Regardless of where your foraging patch is, wash dandelions well before consuming. 

Pang was surprised when she realized how many bugs were residing in the dandelions she plucked. 

“At first I didn’t see any bugs, so I just put them in a bowl of water to rinse off,” she said. “But bugs started coming out. People who are doing it for the first time should know to let their dandelions soak in water for a little bit, and expect to get some friends coming out.”

To use the bright yellow petals, pluck them from the stem on a bright, sunny morning when the flowers are completely dry. 

“Right before a rain, they close up to protect their flowers from losing the pollen,” said Rebecca Rozelle, an herbalist who studied with renowned herbalist Susun Weed more than 20 years ago. “They also close up in the evening and are closed in the morning.”

Rozelle allows dandelions to grow in her yard and garden, where she plucks the leaves for salads, soups, or sautees. 

“Having dandelions in the garden is an emblem of a healthy garden, because they do require a lot of nutrients, and they have nice, deep tap roots,” she said. “The healthier your garden is, the more dandelions you’ll have, in my opinion.”

Mark Watchman, who lives in Eugene, said he eats dandelions from his garden in salads and adds them to any one-pot meals he makes that greens can go into.

“Dandelions require nothing but letting them be and harvesting as desired,” he said. “Some older folk were big dandelion eaters around me when I was in my 20s. I knew that they are very, very nutritious and sadly maligned by our U.S. culture. I often think that if food becomes scarce, we would do well to make better friends with dandelions. Why not in advance of that?”

Uses of dandelions

Pang plucks about a cup and a half of yellow petals from dandelions and puts them into a simple syrup (half water, half sugar). She lets the petals infuse in the syrup to get a strong dandelion flavor. She uses her syrup to flavor tea and also adds it to hot water to get a warm flavored beverage. 

“The syrup surprised me because it tasted like honey,” she said. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was actually honey.”

Neall seeks out small flower buds or the tiny buds of dandelion before the stem starts to grow. These can be plucked and pickled similar to a caper, giving a salty pop.

Dandelion leaves, flowers, and buds can be harvested year-round, though in spring the leaves are typically a bit more bitter than they are in the fall. If the leaves are bitter, Neall suggests blanching them; drying them well; tossing them in oil, salt, and pepper; then roasting them as you would kale or another vegetable.

Neall also blanches dandelion leaves before lacto-fermenting the leaves in salt water. 

“That’s one of my favorites,” she said. “It’s sort of like a kraut.”

Another favorite for Neall is roasting the roots. 

“You get a roasty, toasty, caramel, molasses kind of flavor and aroma,” she said. “If you grind it up, it makes a pretty decent coffee substitute. It doesn’t have caffeine, but it has a really rich, rooty, bitter flavor that is similar to chicory.”

Rozelle frequently cooks the dandelion greens and uses the flower heads for dandelion fritters. 

For salads, Watchman aims for smaller leaves and adds between 10 and 50 leaves to his meals. 

While the payoff is small, the seeds can be harvested from the flowers once they turn into puffballs. Dry them, then sprout them as you would other seeds for a tiny microgreen. 

Dandelion nutrition 

Many plants we label as “weeds” to be eradicated, such as dandelions, are actually highly nutritious and beneficial to pollinators and humans. Dandelion leaves are mineral-rich, with a high concentration of iron, manganese, copper, zinc, and selenium, and traces of aluminum, cadmium, nickel, and chromium. A 2022 study characterized T. officinale as an important source of nutrients, especially fiber, iron, and manganese.

The National Library of Medicine reports that dandelions are native to Asia and Europe, and arrived in the Americas at the time of the Mayflower. A rich history of writings from many cultures across the globe indicate that dandelions have been used medicinally for centuries.

“A beautiful thing about opening people’s minds to dandelions as a food, as medicine, as something that’s very nutrient dense, and a pollinated plant that they don’t need to spray chemicals on can be a whole shift in the way that people think,” Rozelle said. “Weeds are some of the most nutritional plants on the planet.”

Pickled Dandelion Buds

5 ounces (3/4 cup) fresh dandelion buds
1 tablespoon salt

3/4 cup mild white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Wash the dandelion buds very well in a large bowl. Drain. Add dandelion buds back to bowl and cover with cold water. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Let sit for about 30 minutes. Drain and rinse again.

Place buds in heatproof jar. In a small pot, heat the vinegar, sugar, and salt and stir gently until salt and sugar is dissolved.

Pour the hot mixture over the dandelion buds in the jar. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate. Can be used right away but flavor will improve over time.

Dandelion Pancakes

Courtesy of Rebecca Rozelle
Adapted from the zine The Pancake Papers.
Makes two big, hearty pancakes.

Freshly picked and washed dandelion petals

Dry ingredients:
1 cup whole grain flour of choice (einkorn, spelt, whole wheat, etc.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Liquid ingredients:
1 tablespoon whole-milk plain yogurt
1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs

Butter for the pan

Optional:
Berries to add to batter
Toppings for serving: butter, whole-milk yogurt, ripe pears, apples, berries, nuts, cinnamon, cardamom, maple syrup. 

Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix all liquid ingredients together. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix to combine and let sit 5 to 10 minutes. 

Add a handful of freshly picked dandelion blossoms and optional additions of choice.

Heat skillet or griddle to medium-high heat and add butter to pan.

Pour your batter on the pan in pancake-sized amounts and let cook until edges are browned and center is bubbling. These may be a little sticky, so dig in to flip them. 

Cooked Dandelion Greens

Courtesy of Rebecca Rozelle
Adapted from Susun Weed

This recipe involves blanching dandelion leaves a few times to remove bitterness, then cooking and flavoring them.  

Makes about a quart of cooked greens.

A big bunch of fresh dandelion leaves
1 gallon water boiling in separate pot or kettle
2 tablespoons tamari (or more, to taste)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
a splash of apple cider vinegar
minced garlic (optional, to taste)

Tools:
2 large saucepans or a kettle and saucepan with lid
cutting board
sharp knife or scissors
1-quart storage container with lid

Gather dandelion leaves, removing any flower stems as you harvest. Rinse leaves well, discarding any wilted or yellowed bits. Chop or cut into 1-inch pieces.

Place greens in a saucepan. Cover with boiling water. Stir gently. Taste the water—notice how the bitterness reduces with each change of water. Drain (no need to keep the water). Repeat two more times, using freshly boiled water each time.

After the third drain, cover greens with boiling water and simmer with a lid on for 20 to 30 minutes until soft but not mushy. Strain liquid out. 

Transfer hot greens to your storage dish. Add tamari, olive oil, and vinegar. Stir well. Let cool, then seal tightly. The flavors deepen overnight.

Enjoy warm or cold—over grains, with eggs, or as a condiment, or on the side for just about any savory meal.