Tonight we learned about a great weed that most people love to hate, the humble dandelion! As a repeat guest in the Herbal Spotlight, dandelion contains a wealth of vitamins and nutrients, deeming it one of the world's most nutritious plants!

Dandelion is specific for cleansing, toning and nourishing the kidneys and liver. He works well for the digestive system too, best taken as a tonic over time to treat ailments for those specific organs.

Not only is dandelion an excellent medicine, but is also wonderful as food, the best way to take your medicine! It contains a list of vitamins and minerals to put any multi-vitamin supplement to shame. Dried, the leaves are great for adding to any dish. They won't add much flavor to the meal but will add nutrients.

Leaves are great fresh too. Tonight we sampled Cream of Dandelion Soup:

4 cups of chopped leaves
2 cups each dandelion blossoms and buds
4 cups water
1 tablespoon chopped wild garlic/onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 teaspoons of salt 2 cups whole milk, cream or half and half
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour

Boil the leaves in 2 changes of water. While boiling, sauté the onions and garlic until soft. Place the boiled leaves, blossoms, buds and garlic/onion mixture into a stock pot with the water and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add the water and salt and stir.

In a separate pot on the stove, melt butter and add flour, stirring until bubbly. Add 1 cup of the soup mixture, stirring or whisking to combine.

Add thickened soup mixture to the pot of soup and stir, heating and stirring until thickened.

Garnish with dandelion blossoms.

This soup is excellent!

We also sampled dandelion chai, a recipe i found years ago at  Prodigal Farms. It is delicious and I wouldn't change a thing about it! You can find a lot of wonderful dandelion recipes at Prodigal Farms as well.

I always love to teach about such a humble herb. It really wakes people up and gets them thinking about how easy it is to eat and create your own medicine!