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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Yes, you can grow more dandelions from the white puff balls. The ball is made of several single-seeded fruits called achenes, which are each attached to a filament with a feathery tuft on the end. Separate out the small achenes and plant individually. (Just to be safe, select a dandelion that has not been exposed to chemicals or pollutants.) Be sure that you are choosing seeds from an actual dandelion, as there are several lookalikes. Also, if you prefer, there are cultivated gourmet forms of dandelions that you can find at mail order seed companies and other sources that are bred for their larger, less bitter leaves. Hope this helps!
I love the bright yellow polka dots in the yard. I think the weed killer manufacturers have worked really, really hard to convince people that dandelions are weeds. They don't harm a yard at all.
Personally, I have ethical difficulties picking dandelion flowerheads. I too think they are beautiful and, considering the speed in which the bees are dwindling away, much needed to feed these wonderful creatures when winter has ended! Without bees, we don't have flowers or food.
By the way, on my walk with the dog this morning, I noticed that the elastic ties used to tie 'Alnus' trees to the supporting pole (which are more of a corset to the tree) were gone! Some enlightened being cut those rubbers--and freed the trees! Good thing that it's not only me doing that! :-) Spring wishes, all.
Thanks for the great article.
Dandelion syrup is our favorite (my youngest would rather have this than maple any day).
https://naturesnurtureblog.com/homemade-dandelion-syrup
Cleaning dandelion, even after field cleaning, can be a chore. I devised an easy method. Wash you washing machine good with bleach. After a thorough rinse, put your dandelion in and run it on two short cold cycles and rinse, spin dry. It comes out perfect for eating or bagging for the refrigerator. We serve with a hot bacon dressing and diced hard boiled eggs.
Rodity's Greek restaurant in Chicago makes a wonderful side dish called "horta;" boiled dandelion greens with a drizzle of olive oil and a generous squeeze of lemon. So simple, so healthy, so very, very, very delicious!!!
A traditional Easter soup in our Italian family is Dandelion soup. I make a chicken soup and then to that I add chicken meat, tiny meatballs, carrots, dandelion greens, escarole, cabbage and kale. Also important is the coarse ground pepper and salt. It looks much like an Italian Wedding soup. It is very yummy and very good for you!
