“Tra La! It’s May! The lovely month of May! That darling month when everyone throws self control away.” I’ve always loved musicals. As a child the magic of Camelot captured my imagination (and even led to my choosing a Renaissance wedding as an adult!). One of my favorite songs was the one about the month of May. As an innocent child of 5, my mother made sure I knew the song I sang over and over in public was about the LOVELY month of May. It was almost twenty years later that I performed in the play Camelot and realized with shock that the song I loved so much was actually all about the LUSTY month of May!
Well, lovely or lusty, May is finally here. I know I keep mentioning how excited I am for spring, but as a Hawaii girl transplant to the rainiest state in the U.S., it’s an exciting thing! Last year we had less than 100 days without rain. This year, I’m spending every sunny hour I can get outdoors.
My seeds have started to sprout and I’m so excited to see what kind of success I’ll have in my very first real garden. I have 5 varieties of lettuce I’m planting in addition to the lettuce we’ll be getting from our CSA. We’ll be having salad for lunches and dinner pretty much every day and I’m so looking forward to it.
In the meantime, I have another source of greens in my yard. Dandelions!!! One man’s weed is another man’s ingredient.
Our bunny Chloe loves dandelion greens almost as much as she loves kale. Sometimes I’ll pick a pile and place them on the couch next to me while blogging.  She’ll come and sit next to me sucking up leaves like a vacuum cleaner, happily munching away while I work.
We enjoy dandelion greens as well, but their bitterness requires a little softening for us to find them palatable. Dandelion greens will always have a bitter bite, if you don’t like bitter, they’re probably not for you. But if you’re fine with bitter and just want to make it a little milder, you need a bit of sweet, salty and sour.
Make sure when picking your dandelion greens that you get young tender leaves. Once they get older they become tough and the bitterness is just too strong to mellow out. They also sometimes get weird spiny things on the older leaves that I just don’t want to eat.
The MOST important thing when picking your own dandelion greens is to make sure they are free of any pesticides or other poisons. We don’t use any chemicals in our yards so don’t need to worry.
One of the most exciting things about this recipe to me is the fact that it hardly costs me anything. The most expensive ingredient is probably the capers which I got on the discontinued sale rack at my grocery store (I check that rack EVERY time I shop).
The greens cost me absolutely NOTHING. Potatoes are very cheap. Lemon juice and olive oil I get in bulk at Sam’s Club. This is such a budget friendly salad, I make a double batch and keep it in the fridge for the guys to snack on whenever they want. It keeps pretty well for 2-3 days since the dandelion leaves are not as delicate as lettuce.
Have you ever tried dandelion greens?
Dandelion Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large red potatoes
- 3 TBS lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- to taste kosher salt and pepper
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 TBS capers
- 2 cups dandelion greens, washed and dried
Instructions
- Wash the potatoes and cut them into small bite sized chunks. Place potato chunks in a large pot and fill with enough water to cover the potatoes. Bring to boil for 5-10 minutes until easily pierced with a fork.
- While potatoes are boiling, mix lemon juice, olive oil, dijon mustard, salt and pepper and garlic in a small bowl.
- Once potatoes are done, drain well and place in a large bowl. Pour dressing over the potatoes and add the capers.
- Tear dandelion greens into bite sized pieces and mix into potatoes and capers.
- You can serve while the potatoes are hot or refrigerate it one hour to serve cold.
Notes
Approximate cost/serving: This only cost me a crazy 80 cents!!!  That’s just 80 cents for a side dish for FOUR people.  20 cents a serving!!!
Vegetarian/Gluten Free:Â Yes to both, and vegan too.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 269Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 200mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 4gSugar: 3gProtein: 4g
Nutrition information is an estimate only.
I have tried dandelion greens. The first time for me was actually when I was a kid. I went on a fieldtrip to a nature center and we foraged for food for our lunch. It’s very amusing to think about now because it was long before foraging was ‘cool.’ It’s also funny to think about how the spirit of dandelion greens (at least for me) is to eat something that would otherwise be considered a weed and just thrown out, and yet it’s also available at WF for a pretty penny.
That’s funny to me too! I’ve read recipes saying “you can pick your own dandelion greens but I like to buy mine” and think why? Ah well, I’m just such a fan of saving money!
Very interesting recipe. Kudos to you for growing your own salads, I take my hat off to people like you 🙂
How do you measure 2 cups of dandelion greens? Do you pack it, or lightly lay it in the cup?
Hi Elise, I kind of lightly packed it. I don’t really measure out the greens, just wanted to give an approximation for the recipe. You can use more or less, as much as you’d like. Think of a recipe as guidelines, if you just have 2 dandelions worth of greens, your salad will just have a little less!