Dark Days Week 18: Dandelion Salad

An old country spring tonic: cut dandelion greens before the plant flowers, eat them with hot bacon dressing over potatoes. Feel revived; spring is really here!

Washing and chopping the dandelion.



First the potatoes (I chopped them and baked them at 375 for 40 minutes, flipping twice, while an apple crisp baked), then the dandelion, then the hot bacon dressing.






Ben calls it "apple pie" (Apple Crisp from More with Less)



Dandelion Salad (from More with Less, with my shortcuts)

Fry 1-3 slices bacon, chopped, in large skillet.

Separately, whisk together until smooth:
4 Tbs. flour
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. sugar
3 Tbs. cider vinegar
1 egg
2 c. water or milk

Turn heat low under skillet and pour in the combined liquid, stirring continuously until smooth and thick. (A variation I sometimes do: omit egg from dressing and reduce liquid to 1 1/2 cups; then, put chopped hard boiled eggs on top of the salad.)

I serve the dressing separately from the dandelion; this amount can dress 4-5 cups chopped greens. You can use this as a dressing for any green salad, but I only use it on dandelion.

One final note about this meal: just before I served it to my parents yesterday evening, I realized this was a dark days meal! Everything was local, except for the rolled oats on top of the apple crisp (and the usual salt, sugar, cinnamon, etc.). I was planning to make a different totally local menu today, but I'll save that one for next week.