Dandelion Tempura: A crispy treat from garden to plate

Dandelions in the kitchen

Dandelions have multiple culinary uses from adding young leaves to salads, sprinkling the petals as a garnish or dried for making tea. My favourite way of eating dandelions however is to dip them in tempura batter and frying until just golden and crisp. This is a versatile recipe, dandelions have a slight sweetness to them which makes them perfect for dipping in a dipping sauce but equally they’re just a good served with vanilla ice-cream and drizzled in maple syrup.

The tempura batter too is very versatile and can be used with any number of thinly sliced root vegetables, peppers, courgettes etc. If you want to extend the dandelion further you can also tempura the leaves (stick to the younger ones as the older the leaf the more bitter the flavour),

Preparing dandelions to eat

To prepare dandelion flowers to eat, start by picking them from a clean area. Avoid picking flowers that have been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides or that are near roads or other polluting activities. Luckily for most of us gardeners dandelions grow in abundance all around our gardens and for quite a long season so sourcing them should be fairly easy.

Once you have picked your flowers, give them a good shake to be sure they are free of debris. If eating raw in salads I’d recommend giving them a rinse under the tap but as we’re going to be frying them we wont the least amount of water on them as possible. Remove any remaining stem but be careful not to damage the calyx at the base of each flower as the petals will break free and the heads wont hold up to being dipped in the batter. Once the flower heads are prepped we’re good to go.

Dandelion Tempura

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Total time

20

minutes

Turn dandelions into a delicious snack, meal accompany or star of the show with this simple tempura recipe.

Ingredients

• For the tempura:

• 20-30 Prepared Dandelion flowers

• 70g Cornflour / Cornstarch

• 30g Plain / All-purpose Flour
  Pinch of sea salt

• 80ml Cold sparkling water (plus extra if needed)
  Vegetable oil for frying

• For the dipping Sauce (Tentsuyu):

• 180ml dashi

• 45ml soy sauce

• 30ml mirin

• 2 tsp sugar

Directions

• Mix together the flours with the pinch of sea salt.
• Whisk in the sparkling water. You are looking for a thin batter so add more water if required. Conversely if the batter is very watery add a little more flour to thicken up.
• Heat 2-3cm deep of vegetable oil in a saucepan to 160C – 170C. This will help retain the lighter colour. Hotter oil will create a more golden finish which is less desirable for tempura.
• Using chop sticks or a fork dip a dandelion head in the batter and fry until crisp (3-5 minutes). I like to fry 5-7 at a time depending on space in the pan. If it’s too crowded the dandelions will clump together. If the batter feels gelatinous either the oil is too cold or the batter is too thick. Adjust accordingly.
• Remove dandelion tempura from the oil and place on a cloth to blot excess oil.
• Place in serving bowl.
• Tempura dipping sauce
• Combine the dashi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Whisk together and pour into dipping bowl.
• To eat
• Serve the tempura dandelions in a bowl and using chopsticks dip the individual heads into the sauce. Savour.

Recipe Video

Have I tempted you to incorporate dandelions into your diet? Let me know in the comments.