Name: Dandelion Greens Pesto
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts; 1 cup small dandelion leaves (pick them clean, wash and let them dry); 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (shredded or grated); 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon minced garlic; 1/4 cup olive oil (I usually drizzle in until it's the consistency I want)

Dandelions are just ONE of the edible weeds in your yard. Yes, you can eat them! (I call that gardeners revenge) You can steam the greens or make a salad, make jelly from the flowers or tea from the roots, but today we're talking Dandelion Greens Pesto!

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One of the best things about dandelions is that they’re free for the picking, I’ve got a few tips below about picking them successfully, so keep reading.

This fabulous Dandelion Greens Pesto recipe is so easy to make you can whip it up in under ten minutes. Quick, fast, free food straight from your yard? Yes, you can with Dandelion Greens Pesto.

And check out my post on Edible Flowers to find out what else you can eat that’s growing or can be grown in your own yard or garden!

Greens for free

We saw dandelion greens for sale in Europe, I know, people BUY them. They are truly on the menu in Europe and available for sale in markets.

Why don’t we eat them here? Well, the truth is we do eat them here. We just don’t hear about too much. Somewhere along the way, a good weed patch was regarded as something bad, that needs to be poisoned and gotten rid of.

But if you can get past the idea that weeds are bad, well then you’ve got a patch of greens you can pick from for free!

Tips for Picking Dandelions

You might be new to foraging or picking weeds. I have a couple of tips for you to make it easier:

find a patch that hasn’t been sprayed with weed killer
this patch should also be outside of animal waste areas and/or foot traffic areas
the smaller the leaves the better for picking greens, so find new plants whenever you can
a lot of books say “only pick in the spring to get small leaves” BUT every flower that goes to seed can make 150 new plants, so in my opinion, there are always new leaves out there (lol)

You’ll notice in my recipe that I use toasted walnuts for my Dandelion Greens Pesto recipe instead of pine nuts. I found pine nuts to be a little overpowering for dandelion greens.

You can absolutely use pine nuts if you have them and you love them but walnuts will work just fine. They’re more affordable too, which is nice on the wallet. I also think you can use any nut you happen to have on hand, so try almonds or macadamias, or cashews for a little different flavor.

Are you looking for MORE foraged food recipes?

Try my Spruce Tip Shortbread Cookies for a delicious tender shortbread that has tiny kick from spruce tips! Or my Spruce Tip Gravlax, in my opinion it’s the perfect way to enjoy fresh salmon AND spruce tips.

Or try my Wild Rose Jelly or Dandelion Jelly recipes! The lovely flavor of edible flowers you can enjoy all year long. If you want to keep those in the pantry, be sure to water bath can them for safe storage!

Perhaps you’d like to get started with foraging in Alaska? I can’t recommend these books enough! (these are affiliate links, I earn a small amount of money if the books are purchased.)

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