How to Eat Dandelion Flowers

by Tactical Intelligence on April 26th, 2010

This is a follow-up article to the Dandelion Greens – The Perfect Spring Survival Food article I recently wrote.

If you’ve already tried preparing the dandelion greens from the prior article than you know how delicious this wild plant can be.

In this article I wanted to quickly present you with another pair of delicious recipes using a different part of this common every-day plant: the flowers.

Pickled Dandelion Flower Buds

I’d like to thank Rosalee de la Foret for this recipe!

For this recipe, you’ll want to harvest the flower buds when they are still tightly closed — before they ever opened.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onions
3 tablespoons fresh minced ginger
4-5 garlic cloves
1 cup dandelion flower buds
apple cider vinegar
tamari sauce

The Process:

Rinse the flower buds well and place into a pint jar with the onions, garlic, and ginger. Fill halfway with the apple-cider vinegar and then fill halfway with the tamari. Cover with a plastic lid or a metal lid with a buffer (vinegar will corrode the metal lid). Let sit for three weeks and then enjoy on salads, as a snack, or on tuna fish sandwiches.

Dandelion Fritters

Ingredients for the Batter:

1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of milk
one teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 egg
1 tablespoon of honey

The Process:

There are different ways of making this recipe.

One is to combine all of the above ingredients, dip the flower heads in the batter and then fry on a greased pan as I demonstrate in the following picture:
The other is to combine all of the above ingredients, mix the flower heads in the batter and then fry on a greased pan like a pancake as I demonstrate in this picture:
You’ll end up with them looking like this (very tasty!):
While the above recipe is good, my favorite recipe however, is to take a 1/4 cup cornmeal and 1/2 cup flour and put that in a bowl. Then put an egg with a dash of salt in another bowl and finally heat up some olive oil in a small pot or wok:
Then just take a flower head, dip it first in the egg then the flour mixture and then just drop it into the oil:
When it’s done you should have the best tasting flower fritters that are super light and fluffy (sort of like tempura), that look something like this (unfortunately the picture doesn’t do it much justice):

As I mention throughout this site, the more you can practice these skills — whether it be learning to identify and prepare wild edibles to learning different off-the-grid medical treatments — during tranquil times, the better off you’ll be if you are faced with serious hardships during times of trial.

How’s that saying go? “The more we sweat in times of peace the less we bleed in times of war.” There’s a lot of wisdom to that quote. Now get out there and practice!