Dandelion Greens

I had grown up sitting on the lawn trying to find a 4 leaf clover and making dandelion necklaces and bracelets for myself or my sister or my little neighbour but never saw myself weeding them out to make a salad.  When we were little, one time I remember we had gone somewhere on a picnic and my mother saw alot of dandelions and she got us picking the leaves and the roots saying the we could eat them and what a good source of free food.  When we got back home it didnt live up to her expectations and she was never tempted again to out to our lawn and partake of these delights.  Dandelion Greens are very healthy and they make a nice side dish or can be used as a meze.

I lived in Konya for 2 years and one thing I noticed was the women picking weeds.  I took a closer look and saw it was dandelions.  These dandelions were all  a bit different from the normal ones I had seen growing in our lawn.  All different shapes and sizes but all Delicious.  The women told me they ate them as a salad by themselves or mixed in with a salad but  no one  ever gave me a specific recipe.  I remembered when I had lived in Adana that I went to my friends house and she had made a dish.  Dandelion salad, at first I was a bit tentative to taste it as I had remembered my mothers experiments with it.  After the first bite I was taken, such a lovely dish but I had never made it as I hadn't been anywhere where I could find enough of them to make a meal out of.  After 2 cold years of living in Konya we moved to Gaziantep where we still are.  Guess what I saw at the local Bazar? Dandelion greens for sale and 1 lira a kilo.  I bought half a kilo even though the woman was pushing that I buy 2.  I recreated my friends recipe and we have been hooked ever since.  Half a kilo is enough for a family meal or for my husband and myself 2 times.