My (Mostly) Foraged Dandelion Poppers and Greens

I was at my in-law's yesterday practicing proper social distancing and gathering dandelions since the hollow I live in hasn't produced many yet. Ryan's mamaw Joann asked me if I was going to fry the heads of the dandelions and that got my attention. Coming from the city, though I haven't lived in Columbus since 2010 or 2011, I still have a lot of country knowledge to gain. While I have a degree in herbalism, it did not come with foraged food recipes so these are things I'm doing now! I told Mamaw about my (Mostly) Foraged series and she agreed to teach me how to make these delicious easy bites.

The recipe is very basic, which is what we like. In my last post about the salad,click here to read, I mentioned my absolute necessities to grab if I have to actually leave the cottage to go to the store are flour, oats, and oil. You can technically substitue those if you are an excellent forager but I wanted to make this series as basic as possible for those starting out. I will add at the end of this post how to dress up the meal if you want to spice things up.

Start out by foraging either dandelion Taraxacum officinale or cat's ear Hypochaeris radicata and gather the heads and some leaves. I don't always gather the entire plant, I tend to wildcraft rather than forage to ensure the continuous or regrowth of the plant as I need it. (I also threw in some violet Viola odorata leaves because I love them.) 
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Just like frying chicken, you want flour , egg, and oil. Make sure to let the dandelions lay out for a while so little buggies can escape before you wash the plants and dry them. Then go ahead an add your heads to egg, then flour, and then fry in the oil in the pan. We used olive oil. Once they're done, then move to the plate and add your greens to the pan to wilt. We added salt. 

It's as simple as that! If you want to dress it up you can do the following:

• add spices such as oregano, thyme, sage, red pepper, and more to the flour
• use red palm oil instead of olive oil - buttery flavor!

For making it as foraged as possible:

• substitute the flour for cattail pollen or pine bark flour
• nix out on the egg and combine your choice of flour with water to make a paste and then cover the flower head before frying

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Did you find this post helpful? Let me know and comment below. Did you try it? Tag me in a photo of your meal on social media: The Healer's Nook. Next post is going to include redbud - check out my survivalist friend Kenny with his redbuds. Shhhh...don't let him know I used the photo, haha!
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