My family does not garden.
My grandfather called himself a gentleman farmer. This meant he wasn’t actually a farmer at all. He would decide on a flower or a vegetable he might like, and then he would tell his gardener to plant it, weed it and pick it. His garden was lovely and productive, but calling it “his” always seemed a bit inapt to me.
The family has less money now and cannot afford a gardener. For years my mother and I tried to plant vegetables in our yard, dreaming optimistically of running out and picking something for supper and cooking it mere minutes after it left the garden.
Even when we managed to keep the plants fertilized, watered and weeded — and I admit that we didn’t always manage to do so! — the results were dire. Our thumbs were definitely brown. Bugs and rabbits consumed more produce than we did, and our vegetables appeared sad and blemished, if they came up at all.
Some people are destined to buy their food. I am clearly one of them.
These days, I generally manage to keep a few herbs growing in a small patch, and that’s all. I still consume fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the growing season by belonging to a CSA and frequenting local farmstands and farmers markets, but my extended attempts at gardening are over.
Luckily, there is one edible green I have no trouble growing … and it’s about to reappear in my yard this spring!
A few years back, the helpful neighbor who was cutting my lawn, David Rich, finished the first mowing of the year and appeared at my door.
I may not be able to afford a gardener as my grandfather did, but I do pay someone to mow the grass. This is lazy but also practical. I am inept with machines, and whenever I have tried to take care of my own lawn, I have managed to break the lawn mower.
Back to David Rich.
“I left you the dandelions by your herb bed,” he said.
I was perplexed. I felt the way I often do when my cat presents me with a dead mouse. I know the cat is pleased with herself and thinks she is pleasing me, but I can’t bring myself to see a small corpse as a special gift.
Clearly, David also thought he was pleasing me. I couldn’t figure out why I should be pleased, however.
I must have looked as puzzled as I felt because, unlike the cat, David went on to explain. “I thought you might want to eat them,” he clarified.
I don’t detest the dandelions in my yard the way some people do, and I certainly wouldn’t poison the grass to get rid of them. However, it had never occurred to me to eat them.
Still, I’m always ready to try something new. And goodness only knew I had plenty of dandelions with which to experiment. I decided to try them.
Dave suggested cutting the greens carefully with scissors to minimize the grass I would pick and bring inside with them. I still ended up with some grass, but I managed to separate it out while soaking the greens.
He told me that he and his wife Sally liked to cook the greens as they did spinach, by steaming them and adding just a bit of butter.
My favorite way of cooking spinach — aside from making it into a salad — is to sauté it with a little olive oil and garlic so I opted for that method.
When I looked up eating dandelion greens on the internet, I saw a recipe for a dandelion-green salad with walnut oil. I had some walnut oil in the house. I had been using it for salad dressing that spring.
I decided to spritz a bit of the oil onto my cooked greens. I didn’t use it to cook them since walnut oil has a low smoke point. I didn’t want to burn my dandelion greens.
If I had had some walnuts to toast, I would have popped them on top, but I was out of walnuts.
Even without the toasted walnuts, my neighbors the Gillans (who helped taste) and I agreed that the dish was delectable. The greens had a hint of bitterness, but the walnut oil smoothed it out.
Dandelions flower fast, and the greens taste best before the flowers come out. I try to get in as many cooking sessions as I can each spring by nipping the flowers in the bud. After a couple of weeks, I give up and let the plants blossom.
Thanks to my thrifty Yankee neighbor, I am happy to have discovered that I have a knack for growing something I can eat — and something I can feel virtuous about eating. Dandelion greens are chock full of vitamins and minerals. I don’t spray my yard with any chemicals, so mine are also organic.
Note: As readers have probably noticed, dandelion plants grow very close to the ground. Careful soaking/cleaning is therefore necessary; dirt may be natural, but its consistency interferes with the smooth texture of this dish.
Sautéed Dandelion Greens
Ingredients:
1 large bunch dandelion greens (cut when they are young and tender, before the flowers come out)
a small amount of olive oil (start with 1 to 2 teaspoons and add a little more if needed)
1 clove garlic, cut into very thin strips
salt to taste
two shakes of walnut oil
a few toasted walnuts (optional)
Instructions:
Soak the greens in cold water for a few minutes. While they are soaking, remove any grass stalks that are attached to them. Place them in a colander to drain, but do not shake them dry; they should still be slightly damp when you cook them.
In a 12-inch sauté pan, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the garlic pieces until they begin to turn golden brown.
Toss in the greens. They will sizzle a little because they are still a bit damp. Sauté them with the garlic just until the greens wilt. This is a rapid process.
Toss on salt to taste. Transfer the vegetables to a medium bowl, and shake on the walnut oil. Toss. Serve immediately, garnishing with the walnuts if you have them.
Serves 1 to 2.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.