Time to weed out a culinary delight as dandelions sprout

THEY DON’T yet have their sunlike flower heads, at least not the ones I have seen, but there are new clumps of dandelions sprouting up across an area of wasteland near Shipley.

Before the flowers appear is the best time to taste the young leaves, and right on cue a recipe is posted on social media for what sounds like a delicious use of them: wilted into a ragu which also contains brown lentils and spicy sausage.

The leaves add a peppery note to any dish.

In salads a squeeze of lemon in the dressing dials down a bitterness that’s not unlike radicchio, also known as Italian chicory.

Or for a more full-on dandelion leaf flavour dip them in a thin batter before frying in vegetable oil for a few seconds, draining well and sprinkling with lemon juice and sea salt.

But how do you identify dandelions without those famous yellow flowers?

The leaves have spiky lobes which give the plant its name – the word dandelion comes from the French for lion’s tooth, “dent de lion”.

However, if you are in any doubt – although other plants they can be mistaken for are nontoxic – just stick a wildflower identification guide in your bag before picking leaves for the pot.

Incidentally, it’s best to collect them from areas which are unlikely to have been sprayed with herbicide. And go easy on the leaves, since they are a well known diuretic.

The leaves are considered most edible in early spring because later on they can taste quite tart.

This pick-early advice also applies to other leaves popular with foragers, those of stinging nettles and wild garlic, which are among the most ubiquitous wild plants in the UK.

Nettles are something we become wary of as children, a fear that seems to extend into adulthood for some.

A couple of friends were hesitant to eat my cream of nettle soup because they thought it might give them badly stung mouths and stomachs.

But the act of cooking nettle leaves immediately neutralises their stinging ability, which comes from the tiny hollow hairs on the undersides used to protect them from parasites such as ladybirds and leaf bugs.

What is not dissipated is the leaves’ rich vitamin C an A content as well as their high level of protein.

Besides soups, young nettle leaves can also be used to make a lovely pesto sauce with walnuts that’s delicious with pasta and sautéed mushrooms, though it’s necessary to boil them for 90 seconds before transferring them to iced water to halt the cooking process.

Unfortunately, this year’s new growth of wild garlic leaves is still not ready for picking. That stage is usually reached in April.

Last year’s spring heatwave produced a bumper crop in some local woods in the Aire Valley, which marked the bounds of my known world in the first lockdown.

I used the leaves in a recipe by the TV chef Nigel Slater: wilted in double cream and mixed with new potatoes to partner fish, and adding a garlicky note to salads.