A few weeks ago in Fi's wildcrafting class we learned about...you guessed it..dandelions! An interesting fact about dandelions is that you can eat every part of the plant (and you definitely should) because they are chock full of vitamins and nutrients. They have Vitamins A and B, calcium, potassium, carotenoids, coumarins, phenolic acids, taraxocoside, and inulin. Dandelion is considered a "bitter" which helps keep the digestive track healthy. Dandelion root is also being used in testing for cancer treatments because of its anti-cancer potential.
Fi and I decided to head outside to see if we could find dandelions to create a few snacks!
After finding a few plants, we headed back into the kitchen to get the parts cleaned and separated and to decide what we'd use them for.
We decide to make dandelion leaf and dried nettle tea, some of the delicious lemon and dandelion cookies we found a recipe for last week, and roasted the dandelion root to use for teas and to try out Roasted Dandelion Root Coffee.
So let me just say first of all that this "coffee" is actually just a tea but it does give off a coffee-ish aroma hence the name. It is completely caffeine free so keep that in mind.
To make the Iced Roasted Dandelion Root coffee we have Fi here to give you a quick walkthrough with the recipe posted below :
1. Roast the root by adding two tablespoons of dandelion to a sauce pan and turn the temperature to medium high. Make sure to turn on the fan because it will get a little smoky.
2.When the roots are smoky and have turned brown, add 2 cups of water and let it simmer for a few minutes.
3. Add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract and stir it in.
4. Pour into glass full of ice while straining to catch roasted root pieces. We used a strainer like this:
5. Add whichever milk you prefer.
6. Garnish with flowers and leaves. Haha just kidding but look how pretty it is now.
7. Take creative photo and post it or else did it even really happen? Heh heh
Now if you'd like to try this at home but don't want to dig up dandelion root of your own you can order some from here. It's best to roast it yourself because it has a better taste than the pre roasted root that you can buy. Try it out and let me know what you think of these delicious dandelion recipes!