Dandelion Leaf Flakes
The weed pulling double duty in your kitchen: dandelion leaf has a pleasantly bitter, green flavor that cooks in France and Italy have leaned on for centuries.
What It Is
Dandelion leaf is exactly what it sounds like, the familiar lawn plant, dried and broken into flakes for easy use. The flavor is bitter and grassy, closer to arugula or radicchio than to a mild herb. That bitterness is the whole point. It gives teas and broths a clean, vegetal edge that bland greens simply cannot offer.
Dandelion has been gathered as a food plant across Europe and Asia for a very long time, eaten in salads, cooked into soups, and steeped as a daily tea. The leaf form, as distinct from the root, brings a lighter and more distinctly green character to whatever it goes into.
What To Do
For tea, steep one teaspoon of flakes in hot water for five to seven minutes, then strain. It is pleasantly bitter on its own and pairs well with lemon peel or ginger. Blend it into a loose-leaf mix if straight dandelion is too sharp for your taste.
You can also stir the flakes into soups or vegetable broths in the last few minutes of cooking, where they soften and add depth. Store in a sealed container away from light and heat, and use within a year for the best flavor.
