Dandelion Greens

I enjoy using the farmer's market as a way to push my own cooking boundaries.  There are always vendors selling items I've never tried before and the person who grew it is almost always right in front of me.  If I'm curious about the best way to prepare something or what it will taste like when cooked, they have the answer.  This is what led me to pick up dandelion greens when I saw them being sold by Blue Skys Farm.

Blue Skys always has fantastic produce and flowers and always seems to surprise me with their weekly market offerings.  For a few weeks, at the start of the farmer's market season, they were selling bags of dandelion greens.  I had never tried them, never even realized they were edible, but there they were.

I asked what a person would do with dandelion greens and immediately everyone around said I could add them to salads or saute them with other greens.  I probably should have been on guard when the vendor said she didn't really like them, too bitter for her, but I went ahead and bought them anyway.

Once home, I started searching around on the interwebs to find recipe ideas.  Many articles cited the dandelion greens' bitterness as either its attraction or detraction.  After reading about how bitter they can be, I decided it was best to cook the heck out of them and let them stand alone.  Since I had never tried them before, if they were still too bitter for my liking once cooked, I didn't want to ruin an otherwise perfect dish.

Thankfully, my decision to err on the side of caution proved smart.  I boiled them first in salted water for 10 minutes.  While they drained in a colander, I heated some olive oil in a skillet then cooked a sliced garlic clove for about a minute.  I transferred the greens to the skillet and cooked them for about 5 minutes, until they were thoroughly wilted.

I gave them a taste test and realized they were still way too bitter for my taste buds.  I ended up sacrificing a handful of pea shoots in an attempt to cut the bitterness.  They were added to the skillet and cooked for about 2 minutes, just long enough to wilt the leaves but leaving a bit of crispness to the stems.

The meal wasn't a complete waste.  I had an excellent piece of swordfish as the main component. And, overall, I was glad I tried them.  Now I know that dandelion greens are not my cup of tea.