Nourish Mama by Sherry Rothwell

Got Dandelion?

In my previous post, I shared about the garden you didn’t even know you had. Today, since it is liver season, I am going to share with you how to eat dandelions!

There are 5 things that excite me the most about eating weeds…

  1. Weeds are incredibly nutritious, as are all green leafy vegetables. I think it’s obvious to most that greens are high-end nutrition, full of vitamins and minerals. But did you know that they are also a great source of protein too? In particular, the dandelion when you eat the whole plant (leaves, stems, roots and flowers) is a complete protein!
  2. Weeds are no maintenance. They’re coming up whether you like it or not! Instead of resisting them or resenting how long they take to pick, instead you can take those weeds straight out of the garden and simply add them to salad at dinner. In fact once you know what you’re doing, you’ll discover that you have enough weeds in your yard, to have no need to buy any salad greens from the grocery store (other than in winter).
  3. Weeds are free! It’s crazy to think that every day we walk past delicious, nutritious and free food, all the while imagining that it’s too expensive to really eat healthy!
  4. If you know how to identify, harvest and cook with weeds, you’ll never have to worry about starving through a natural disaster or otherwise.
  5. Weeds are both food and medicine. In the case of the dandelion, this ubiquitous beauty is a liver lover…..just what we need in this culture of chemicals. You can learn more about loving up your liver this spring here in this free audio training.

To help you get started (eating a weed that you can easily identify!), I’ve compiled a list of recipes below that you can use for your dandelion harvest!

You can make:

  1. dandelion salad
  2. dandelion milk
  3. dandelion tempera
  4. dandelion juice
  5. dandelion green powder
  6. dandelion root coffee

Enjoy the recipes!

Dandelion Salad

weed saladWhat you will need:
dandelion stem
dandelion leaves
dandelion flowers
salad dressing of your choice

How to do it:

  1. Gather 3 whole dandelion plants.
  2. Remove the roots (put aside to make dandelion coffee).
  3. Fill your sink a quarter full with water and rinse the dandelion.
  4. Place on your cutting board and chop into bite-sized pieces.
  5. Place in salad bowl and toss with your favourite dressing.

Dandelion Milk

milkWhat you will need:
1 cup water (filtered or Spring)
3 tbsp dandelion seeds (you can soak them overnight if you can wait!)
optional: ice

How to do it:

  1. Place seeds and water in a high powered blender
  2. Blend for one minute.
  3. Pour the milk through a nut milk bag or layered cheesecloth into a glass.
  4. Optional: add ice and enjoy!

Dandelion Tempura

Dandelion Salad with Dandelion Flower TempuraWhat you will need:
2 cups of clean dandelion flowers
3/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 whole egg
1/3 cup butter

How to do it:

  1. Melt butter on the stove on medium in a frying pan.
  2. Place the flower and nutritional yeast in bowl and mix evenly with a fork.
  3. Place the egg in another bowl and whisk.
  4. Take one dandelion flower, roll it in the whisked egg, next in the flour mixture and finally put it in the frying pan.
  5. Repeat until the pan is full.
  6. You may need to reduce the temperature from medium to a little less than that to keep your dandelion tempura from burning.

Dandelion Juice

What you will need:

dandelion stem
dandelion leaves
dandelion flowers

juice and rootsHow to do it:

  1. Gather 20 whole dandelion plants.
  2. remove the roots (put aside to make dandelion coffee).
  3. Fill your sink a quarter full with water and rinse the dandelion.
  4. Place on your cutting board and chop into bite-sized pieces.
  5. Put in your juicer.
  6. Refrigerate juice and consume a 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup twice per day.

Dehydrated Dandelion Powder

What you will need:
dehydrator
dandelion stem
dandelion leaves
dandelion flowers

powderHow to do it:

  1. gather 20 whole dandelion plants
  2. remove the roots (put aside to make dandelion coffee)
  3. Fill your sink a quarter full with water and rinse the dandelion
  4. Place on your cutting board and chop into bite-sized pieces
  5. Lay out all your dandelion pieces on dehydrator trays
  6. Dehydrate until crisp
  7. Blend in your high powered blender
  8. Put into a glass jar and store in a cool dark place such as a basement cupboard or the freezer.

Dandelion Coffee

What you will need:
a dehydrator
dandelion root
Optional: add cream and unrefined sugar

coffeeHow to do it:

  1. Save the roots from making all the after mentioned recipes (you can store them in a mason jar unwashed and in the fridge or you can wash and dehydrate them as you go).
  2. Lay out clean roots in the dehydrator.
  3. Dehydrate until dry.
  4. Chop into as small pieces as you can.
  5. Roast in the oven at 375 degrees F until nicely browned.
  6. Blend in the highest powered blender you have until it is a fine dissolvable powder.
  7. Place in a clean mason jar.
  8. When you are ready to make dandelion coffee, use 3 Tbsp or more per cup of hot water.
  9. Optional: add cream and unrefined sugar.

Note: if your grinder won’t grind enough for your dandelion coffee to dissolve, no worries, just strain your brew after letting it sit for a bit (a Bodum coffee maker would work well).

p.s. you can put your oven on the lowest setting to use it as a dehydrator to make the root coffee or the dandelion juice powder.

Have you tried eating dandelion yet? What is your favourite dandelion recipe?

 

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The Garden You Didn’t Know You Had!

Over the years on the path to reclaiming domestic arts and traditional wisdom, my vision and focus, pretty much has never left the kitchen.

These days though, I’m starting to think more and more about how to grow and access food, without relying on a grocery store – even the organic ones.

weed grass

Move over wheatgrass, ‘weed grass’ is in the house!

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the convenience, it’s just that, I want to know for sure, that I know how to grow and access appreciable amounts of food for my family – anytime.

Whether you want to save money, access more nutrition or gain survival skills, you’re going to love discovering the garden you didn’t even know you have!

And no, it’s not about going into the woods and foraging (although you could), it’s a little closer to home…. right outside your door in fact!

I’ve been having so much fun with it and it lights me up so much, that I’m going to share the process with you, as I learn it, so that we can both grow in knowledge together.

I get so excited when I find really cool stuff…. I just can’t help myself from sharing it!

In this case I am sharing with you, something you already have!

Something you may even be trying to get rid of.

You should have seen the look of trepidation on my husbands face when I offered him a cold glass of ‘weedgrass’ juice tonight before dinner!

I decided to create video to show you what I’m learning, so that you can learn along with me!

It’s pretty cool isn’t it, that there is such an abundance of one of nature’s most nutritious foods (leafy greens) right outside your door.

It’s not only super accessible, but it’s completely free for everyone.

While you should invest in a weed book (just to make sure what you’re eating is actually edible) don’t worry about whether or not your weeds are perfectly pristine.

weed salad

Free the Salad!

If you don’t spray your lawn or garden, it’s likely that even weeds growing by the side of the road are much cleaner then the conventional food at the grocery store (not to mention how often we eat commercially or organically grown food situated at the edge of the highway and don’t even know it)?

Remember, it’s earth, not dirt!

If you want to learn how you too can identify common edible weeds, instead of wasting them, click here to buy Katrina Blairs inspirational life-saving and practical book!

On another note, and yet in perfect timing…. did you know that according to Chinese medicine, it is liver season? If you want help loving up your liver this year, then check out this free training that will give you the knowledge of how to eat to nourish your liver this spring.

Will you eat weeds with me?

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