Dandelion Salad with hard boiled eggs, boiled potatoes and crispy pancetta Recipe
This very healthy and nutritious but incredibly tasty salad is made from young and tender dandelion leaves and enriched with hard boiled eggs, cooked potatoes and crispy pancetta that give us extra energy for the long spring walks in the nature and for completing all those chores in the garden and inside the house.
This salad can also easily become vegetarian and vegan friendly by simply omitting some of the ingredients.
Dandelion leaves, with their verdant colour, can be eaten cooked (customary on the Slovenian coast) or raw, they have a pleasant bitter taste, a bit like peppery rocket salad, and they should be picked small and tender before the plant blooms, then they turn seriously bitter.
When foraging for dandelion try to avoid the areas close to busy roads, lanes popular with dog walkers (no need to go into too much detail as to why), and fields close to farms that have potentially been sprayed with pesticides or fertilizers and antibiotics which get absorbed into the plant.
To pick dandelion you can use a small knife and cut around the plant root and then pull it out of the ground or just simply tear the leaves off the plant.
Dandelion is very rich in vitamins and minerals, very good for our body, and yes it might be a bit bitter, but it is this bitter substance in the dandelion leaves that helps to optimise the function of the gallbladder and the liver. They contain a lot of potassium which is very beneficial for the kidneys, and iron which enriches our blood and helps to purify it. .
This is of no coincidence since dandelion salad is very popular in early spring (around Easter), not only because this is the right time to pick the leaves, but also because this salad is also traditionally eaten with eggs, a symbol of purity, rebirth, and rejuvenation.
In Slovenia, where I come from, picking dandelion leaves in spring time during long walks and returning home with a free lunch or dinner is a great pastime, and almost an obsession.
But there is another tradition that is deeply rooted and much anticipated, especially with the children. It is colouring and decorating Easter eggs, and lots of them, they would be beautifully displayed in small wicker baskets and than used, yes, you guessed it, in the dandelion salad and of course other dishes.
I am sharing here the family recipe, that includes the use of crunchy pancetta or ocvirki (very commonly used in Slovenia, they are small pork cracklings in lard, usually home made, kept in glass jars in the fridge).
A small amount (about 2Tbsp) of pork cracklings in lard will be placed in a small frying pan and warmed up, by doing so, the lard melts and the cracklings get very crunchy, all of this would then be added to the dandelion salad substituting the oil and the pancetta.
If you never have this salad before, try it and play around with the ingredients to suit your taste, keep the ingredients you like and omit the ones you are less keen on. You can also forage a smaller amount of dandelion leaves than indicated in this recipe and mix with other salad leaves.
Have a go and make this super salad, next time you look at the dandelion you will not see it as a annoying weed...
Ingredients
Serves 4
100-150g freshly picked young dandelion leaves, trimmed and picked through
4 eggs, hard boiled
potatoes (about 400g) cooked and peeled (you can use baby potatoes or new potatoes with the skin on)
150g pancetta rashers (sliced pancetta) or streaky bacon, smoked or unsmoked
extra virgin olive oil (or other type if prefer)
vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar, you can use red or white wine vinegar or cider vinegar works well too)
1 clove of garlic, peeled and very finely chopped, optional (I did not use garlic I this recipe)
sea salt
black pepper
Method
Start by preparing all the ingredients needed for the salad.
Place the potatoes in a pot, cover with water, bring to boil and simmer until cooked.
Cut pancetta rashers or streaky pancetta into small pieces, place them in a small pan and gently fry until very crisp. Remove them from the pan, and place on to kitchen paper so they can drain, and the excess fat can be absorbed. Let the rashers cool and set them aside.
Cook the eggs in a small pan of simmering water until hard boiled, cool, peel and cut into quarters.
Clean dandelion leaves, wash and dry thoroughly (use salad spinner if you have one).
