Make your own dandelion greens, jelly, wine, and more!
Did you know that you can eat dandelions? Instead of mowing them down, harvest them for greens, soup, jelly, pesto, and even wine! Learn more about dandelion’s benefits and find a selection of dandelion recipes to try. Consider adding dandelions to your diet!
Weed or Food? The Dandelion is Both!
Native to Eurasia, this humble member of the aster family has traveled far and wide. Believe it or not, the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) was not always considered a weed. Cultures worldwide thought of the dandelion as a “common herb” and have used every part of the plant as both nutritious food and powerful medicine.
The dandelion is rich in nutrients, including protein, calcium, iron, and Vitamins A and C.
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Dandelions are good for digestion and may ease rheumatism or liver problems. In fact, one of the plant’s common nicknames in French—pissenlit (pee-the-bed)—attests to dandelion’s use in traditional healing cultures as a valuable diuretic agent (rich in potassium). Learn more about the health benefits of eating dandelions.
Dandelion Recipes
Dandelions are so abundant that they’re easy to harvest! And most of the plant can be used—flowers, leaves, and roots. Yes, even the flowers can be eaten!
Eat Your (Dandelion) Greens
As with most greens, the plant leaves are best when they are young and tender. Ideally, gather dandelion leaves before the plant blooms, as they will become increasingly bitter and tough.
Young dandelion leaves make an excellent addition to salads and bring a sharp taste to the mix.
Or, the young leaves can be cooked like spinach sautéed in oil and garlic like many leafy greens.
Our favorite way to eat the greens? Grind them into Dandelion Pesto!
Photo: Quanthem/Shutterstock
Eat Your Flowers!
One of our favorite recipes is a Dandelion Syrup (also called Dandelion Honey), which you make from the flowers. It’s great over pancakes and waffles or mixed with oatmeal. Or stir it into tea or a carbonated drink, which is an old-style European favorite!
Pick newly yellow dandelion heads (ones on short stems) and try these yummy Fried Dandelion Blossoms.
Photo: Lyudmila Mikhailovskaya/Shutterstock
For something spreadable, try Dandelion Jelly! Harvest 1 quart of bright, fresh dandelion blossoms!
Photo by minadezhda/Shutterstock.
Dandelion Drinks
To wash those down, try a “spirit” of spring, like Pink Dandelion Wine or Dent-De-Lion Wine. Dandelions have been used to make these brandy-like drinks for centuries.
Even the dandelion roots can be used for making a caffeine-free coffee-like drink. For a refreshingly different brew in the morning, try Dandelion Root Coffee.
A couple of safety notes: Obviously, only eat dandelions from areas that don’t use chemical weedkillers; we’d also avoid public areas where dogs may have peed on them. If you are foraging on public land, it’s harvest sparingly so you don’t disturb the plant population and leave plenty for the pollinators! Learn more about safety harvesting dandelions.
Do you eat your weeds? Ever made food or drink with dandelions? Share your recipes or comments below! We’d love to hear from you.
Catherine Boeckmann
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My mother made dandelion wine about 50 years ago. I had one bottle of her wine, which I kept in the wine cellar, until last summer when I decided to open it and see how it tasted. My partner and I tried it, and he loved it. I thought it tasted like brandy, so I called it dandelion brandy. He wanted to make some, but I didn't know how she made it. I just came across your site, and we are going to try this recipe.
this happened to a friend of mine (shawn) and myself many years ago when hog prices were low farmers couldn`t give them away. My brother (ron) who raises hogs came over my house to visit. Shawn and i had gone muchroom hunting but didnt get enough for the meal so we breaded dandelion flowers and cooked them with the mushrooms. My brother seeing what we were doing blurted out " hogs are 6 cents a pound and you guys are eating dandelions ! " We all laugh about this every time it comes up. Dandelions are great cooked this way
As a young kid my mother would send my brother and I out to dig dandelion greens to make wilted greens for a spring dish. She didn't cook the greens, she just poured a hot white sauce over the greens and served that over mashed potatoes. We all loved that dish and knew it was very good for us as a spring tonic.
This year, we're trying for and heirloom pink dandelion, and pink dandelion jelly sounds like food from a fairy tale. Gotta try that if we have any luck with the plants!
Salad: 4T oil, 2 small slabs of salt pork cooked to golden brown in the oil. Remove fry pan from heat let cool. Add red wine vinegar about 1/4 C. Heat to boiling wilt weeds with dressing, salt & pepper to tast toss & enjoy😜
Yum! That sounds delicious, Lynn!
is it possible that you, Ramona Jackson, is a friend of mine from long long ago? Startling! does FDU ring a bell?
I love to find Dandelion flowers with long stems. Wash well and dry. Place the heads in a batter like pancake batter and fry them in a skillet. Children love this. Can do the same thing with Clover Blossoms.
Many, many years ago a family moved into my brothers' neighborhood on Long Island, N.Y. The husband told my brother that one of the reasons they had chosen that particular house was because of the hundreds of beautiful, golden flowers growing in the yard. It didn't take long before neighbors (not my brother, the son of a savvy, old Italian) enlightened them to their "weed infestation" and they were shopping for a lawn company to eradicate the now noxious dandelions. Go figure!
Could I start seedlings from the Dandelion Puffs (White) so I can have a clean product to harvest?
