The spring sun has warmed and the first wildflowers are about to appear, among which bright yellow dandelions are especially pleasing to the eye. Summer residents will hurry to uproot them from the site as soon as they bloom and the wind scatters the fluffy seeds throughout the surrounding area. However, this activity can be combined with making healthy dandelion meals.
The fact is that only young shoots are used for food: the stems together with the leaves before flowering. Therefore, you need to take advantage of the moment of early spring. Those who are already fond of dandelion salads are trying to stock up on young greens for future use, using the freezing method. There is another way to store dandelions for a long time - pickling. You need to prepare a marinade to your liking, boil dandelion greens in it for 2 minutes, cool and arrange in jars.
To prepare dandelions, the entire rosette of an individual plant must be carefully cut to the very root. Lovers of raw food do not subject the plant to any heat treatment, but simply rinse it under running water, cut it and add it to any salad. Before the dandelion began to bloom, its stems are very tender and juicy.
But it is still recommended after rinsing to pour boiling water over the dandelions or even boil for about a minute. After that, they are immersed in cold water for 6 hours, then squeezed out of excess liquid and combined with any salad dressing. Soaking is necessary to remove the bitterness. The younger the foliage, the less it is. You can speed up the process by leaving it in salt water (1 tablespoon of salt per 1 liter of water) for only half an hour.
To understand in what form dandelions will suit your taste, you need to experiment a little. Some people like them as a side dish. In this case, the dandelions are kept in a 5% saline solution and fried with the addition of crackers in vegetable oil. You can combine them with pre-cooked pieces of meat.
Spicy lovers can be offered fried dandelions with the addition of red hot pepper, green or onions, garlic, soy sauce. A mild dandelion salad is made from ingredients such as green onions, radishes, margelan radish, cucumber, and a variety of greens. Use balsamic vinegar, olive oil, or lemon juice as a dressing.
If time is lost, and the dandelions have already bloomed, but are not yet ripe, then you can make jam - "dandelion honey". For 300 pieces of flowers, 1 kg of sugar and 2 glasses of water are taken. The flowers are dipped in pre-cooked syrup. Cook for half an hour, you can intermittently, in one of which add lemon juice. The taste is really identical with honey. Only flowers are taken without the green sepal.
