If you like bitter greens but haven’t yet tried dandelions, make today the day. Whether you pick them from a field, receive through your CSA or just buy at the market, tender, young dandelion greens are just coming into season; they’re a great substitution for escarole, broccoli rabe or chicory.

Food Ideas

• Love to Cook: Pan-fried or grilled fish with dandelion salad
• Weeknight Reality: Pasta with sausage and dandelion greens
• Need a Miracle: Dandelion salad with Parmesan & poached eggs

Recipe Links

• Dried Fava and Potato Puree with Dandelion Greens – bon appetit (about 2 hours, not including time to soak beans)
• Pan-Fried Halibut, Lemon Butter and Dandelion Greens – The Bite House (about 20 minutes)
• Dandelion and Carmelized Carrot Salad – Splendid Table (about 45 minutes)
• Steamed New Potatoes with Dandelion Green Salsa Verde – Food & Wine (about 25 minutes)
• Orecchiette with Dandelion, Sausage & Lemon Zest – Pino Luongo via Epicurious (about 30 minutes)
• Dandelion Greens with Shaved Fennel, Celery & Parsley – Sassy Radish (15-20 minutes)
• Dandelion Salad – Martha Stewart (less than 10 minutes)

Parting Thought

It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.

Henry Ward Beecher