Dandelion greens, field garlic and spicy mustard chicken
Today I got my Green Dean’s Eat the Weeds Newsletter, and it inspired me to… eat the weeds! 🙂
Washing dandelion greens
What’s most plentiful in my yard right now are dandelions and field garlic. So that’s what I harvested.
Right now the dandelion leaves are small with only a slight, pleasant bitterness to them. They would be great in salads at this stage. Later they will be very bitter and will require parboiling twice to make them good.
Field garlic bulbs
Dandelion greens can pick up a lot of pine straw and trash. The best way to wash them is to cut them free from the base, then float them in a large bowl of water. That way you can pick out the pine straw and stray plant matter, and much of the trash sinks to the bottom of the bowl.
The field garlic bulbs clean easily with a spray of water to wash the mud off them. Then you use the little pearly bulbs. The green leaves are too fibrous to eat.
Field garlic bulbs ready to cook
I sautéed the garlic bulbs in grapeseed oil because I was out of olive oil until they were translucent and just starting to brown. Then I added what looked like a massive amount of dandelion leaves, which quickly cooked down to a fraction of their size. Then all I added was salt and a sprinkling of hot pepper flakes.
I topped them with leftover chicken breast chunks, tossed with spicy brown mustard, splenda and lemon juice.
The dandelion greens cooked up sweet, without a hint of bitterness, and a little chewy.
Not bad for an almost free meal!
Tinycamper's Blog 
alex
/ March 26, 2014OMG that looks so good. You are very cool!
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tinycamper
/ March 26, 2014Some say I’m a little weird! 😀
Thanks, Alex.
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Horst
/ March 26, 2014I never heard of Field garlic bulbs…is the taste the same as the regular garlic…..The dish you make LOOKS awesome…my mouth is watering :)….thanks for sharing!!! Ron must be smiling these days!!! Horst sends
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tinycamper
/ March 26, 2014Horst, they taste just like garlic except some times during the season they are a lot stronger. These were relatively mild — probably because it is still so cold.
Here’s an earlier post where I showed pictures of it growing in our yard and gave a little more detail on it. https://tinycamper.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/more-on-cold-weather-wild-edibles/
Ron is a trouper. He will eat anything I serve him — and I have served him some weird, wild foods over the years! What is fantastic is that he usually likes it — or at least is intrigued by it!
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JO
/ March 26, 2014Looks good. Dandelions cook down like spinach and other greens. I don’t know if I have every eaten wild garlic. I have made that spicy mustard chicken and I was thinking of making some this weekend when i have more time. Haven’t had that in a very long time.
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tinycamper
/ March 27, 2014That chicken is really good! And so easy!
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nancy1340
/ March 26, 2014Sounds good. I think I’ll talk FTWB ie. Frank the Wonder Boy to help me pick some dandelions tomorrow. I managed a handfull or to of chickweed for our salad yesterday.
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tinycamper
/ March 27, 2014Cool about the chickweed! Let me know how you like the dandelion greens!
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Roberta
/ March 27, 2014Looks good!
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tinycamper
/ March 27, 2014We enjoyed it. Most of the fun is knowing you are eating wild, free food!
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cozybegone
/ March 27, 2014Love it when post your foraging skills, toppled with cooking! I can still taste that pudding!
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tinycamper
/ March 27, 2014I was thinking about that banana pudding the other day. I haven’t made once since then. Will have to invite company over so I have an excuse to make another one! 🙂
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cozybegone
/ March 27, 2014Xo…I wish we could meet up again on our back trip…I’ll be in touch…really want an Easterly MS trip back…
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tinycamper
/ March 27, 2014Would LOVE to meet up again!!! Email me!
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lynne
/ March 27, 2014Looks delicious! Ron is a lucky man!
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tinycamper
/ March 27, 2014Ron is a brave and patient man! 😀
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The Editors of Garden Variety
/ March 28, 2014A very good looking meal. I have yet to try eating dandelions but will do so in the near future.
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tinycamper
/ March 28, 2014Just make sure the leaves are young. Older ones are pretty bad. 🙂
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