Last week as my friend Rebecca and I were strolling through the farmers’ market we came across a woman selling dandelion jelly. Rebecca had sent me a link to a website talking about making this delicacy and the writer harvested 1000 flours and spent some 4 or 5 hours removing the petals from the heads. Now, I am keenly interested in trying new things to pass on to Planet Green readers, but this seemed way too much like work.

Rebecca bought some jelly from the young lady who urged us to try making it “at least once”, while admitting that it was pretty labour intensive. Dandelions were out everywhere and we realized that we would have to forage that day, more or less, so we took a pass. I found a recipe a few days later that seemed a much more manageable size than the 1000 flowers, but by then it was too late.

In any case, Rebecca made us a salad of the spinach, dandelion greens and radishes and she used the dandelion jelly in the salad dressing, which never would have occurred to me. I admit that it is a bit of an esoteric ingredient and you might have trouble buying it, so you can always substitute another jam or jelly. Rebecca suggests something tart and tangy like marmelade would be ideal, and I think something like crabapple jelly would also work.

Neither my husband nor I had ever had halloumi, and the croutons were wonderful. If you can’t find halloumi you could melt some Parmesan cheese and use that. The Parmesan would be saltier, but would still be a nice contrast to the sweet-tart dressing.

This recipe was devised and made by Rebecca Vandevelde.

INGREDIENTS