No, they don’t taste like burgers, but that didn’t stop us from eating them like they were burgers! Well, except for the fact that we didn’t have burger buns, so we ate them on toasted sandwich bread. But we dressed them up like real burgers, with ketchup, mayo, mustard, and topped with a bit of our dandelion salad – not bad, not bad at all!
Usually, my go-to recipe for tilapia has been Broiled Tilapia Parmesan - it’s so amazing, please do yourself a favor and try it!
But since my yard is now covered in dandelions, I wanted to see if I could somehow incorporate the greens with my favorite fish. The only recipe I found was one for fish tacos; and although I’m not vehemently opposed to fish tacos, I just wasn’t feeling them for dinner that night. Plus, I didn’t have any tortillas, so tacos were just not happening.
I did, however, have pita bread (like every good Arab wife 
) so I decided I’d go ahead and attempt this recipe and see how far I got. I made a few changes and omissions based on our tastes and what I had on hand, and it turned out pretty yummy! We also made Mashed Potatoes with Dandelion Greens and Carmelized Onions that night, so check out that recipe as well!
I washed and chopped the greens, then boiled them until tender. Then I sautéed onions and garlic and added the greens, sprinkled some crushed red pepper, salt, and black pepper, and let it all simmer while I cooked the fish.
The fish was pan-fried in a skillet with lemon, then broken apart into smaller pieces.
Then I just spooned the tilapia and greens into separate bowls, and drizzled the fish juices onto the greens.
I laid half a pita on the plate, and layered it with the greens, followed by the tilapia…
…and ate it sort of like a pizza 
And there you have it! My take on tilapia with dandelion greens, although I still want to try the fish tacos one time too! Enjoy!
This recipe was part of a series on cooking with dandelions, view other recipes in this series here: Dandelions: Friend or Foe (With Recipes!)
This recipe was loosely adapted from here.
| Tilapia and Dandelion Greens on Pita |
- 1 bunch dandelion greens,
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- ½ cup oil
- 2 tilapia fillets
- 1 lemon
- 1 whole wheat pita
- salt and pepper
- crushed red pepper
- dried basil
- Bring medium pot of salted water to boil. Cut dandelion greens into 2-inch sections, and wash thoroughly.
- Place washed, cut-up greens into boiling water and cook until leaves are tender, about 10 minutes on medium heat. Remove from heat, drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking.
- Heat ¼ cup oil in skillet on low. Add onion and garlic and sauté on medium-low heat to desired level of brownness. Add drained dandelion greens and a dash of crushed red pepper, to taste. Stir everything together and let simmer.
- Heat ¼ cup oil in wide, shallow pan on medium heat. Add tilapia fillets.
- Squeeze half the lemon over fish. Flip fillets after about 5 minutes, and squeeze other lemon half over fish.
- When fish is cooked through, use spatula to cut fillets into small, square-ish pieces. Add sea salt and pepper. Sautee about another five minutes.
- Cut pita in half and lay on plate. Layer with half the greens mixture and top with tilapia.
This post was shared here: Melt in Your Mouth Mondays, Monday Mania
[tssig]
I’m a huge fan of eggs, especially loaded with veggies and scrambled or made into omelets. Baked omelets are so easy; you just sautee all your veggies, dump the egg on top and pop it in the oven. Done! So when looking for a new way to incorporate some dandelions into our meals, I knew we had to try them in our morning eggs – and I’m so glad we did!
I woke up earlier then Mr. B and Baby Y, headed out to the backyard and picked some fresh dandelion greens and closed flower buds. I’m not one to measure ingredients (it’s bad, I know!), but here’s a picture of how much I picked for our 2-person omelet: a small bunch of greens and about 20-30 unopened flower buds.
Mr. B is not as big a fan of eggs as I am, so his eggs have to be loaded with as many veggies as possible, to mask the egg taste So, this became a loaded spring veggies omelet – fine by me! I chopped up some onions, mushrooms, celery, and asparagus. Again, no measurements, really…
I sauteed the greens and flower buds until they were soft…
Then added the rest of the veggies and cooked until they were nice and tender.
Then I beat the eggs with some milk and seasonings, dumped them over the veggies, and topped with some shredded cheese.
I popped it in the oven for about 10 minutes, and voila – Baked omelet!
I love my eggs with bread – scrambled eggs with toast, and omelets with pita bread – so I warmed up a pita and went to town on this thing!
Enjoy!
This recipe was part of a series on cooking with dandelions, view other recipes in this series here: Dandelions: Friend or Foe (With Recipes!)
| Dandelion Greens and Flower Buds Baked Omelet |
- 1 small bunch dandelion greens, coarsely chopped
- 20-30 unopened dandelion flower buds
- 1 asparagus spear, chopped
- 1/2 celery stalk, chopped
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 2 medium mushrooms, chopped
- 4 eggs
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons oil
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Wash and drain dandelion greens and buds. Heat oil in oven-proof skillet on medium heat, and sauté dandelions until just soft. Add the rest of the vegetables, and continue to sauté until tender and cooked through.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, salt and pepper, and parsley.
- Pour eggs over vegetables, top with shredded cheese.
- Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
This recipe was shared here: My Meatless Mondays, Melt in Your Mouth Mondays, Just Another Meatless Monday, Monday Mania,Fat Tuesday, Foodie Friday,
[tssig]
We made these along with the Tilapia and Dandelion Greens on Pita and they were to die for! I loosely adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart (love her!) and these were seriously the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had – and I’m a total mashed potatoes snob, so that’s really saying something!
The secret to these awesomely delectable mashed potatoes? Carmelized onions! Why didn’t I ever know this?!? Leave it to my girl, Martha, to teach me something like this. She probably added them to counter the bitterness of the greens, but even if there weren’t any greens in there, I would love the onions just the same. Seriously, if you haven’t had thin slices of carmelized onions swirled throughout your mashed potatoes, I feel sorry for you. Like, you just don’t know…well, until now, because you ARE going to make these very soon…and then you’ll know
They were pretty simple to make too; as your potatoes are boiling, cook the onions with some brown sugar until soft and brown, about 15-20 minutes.
This is after about 10 minutes...almost there!
The original recipe uses the raw greens, but I went ahead and boiled them to soften them up a bit. Then I just mashed the potatoes, seasoned them, dumped the onions and greens on there, and stirred it all together to make what I now refer to as happiness in a bowl
Enjoy!
This recipe was part of a series on cooking with dandelions, view other recipes in this series here: Dandelions: Friend or Foe (With Recipes!)
This recipe was loosely adapted from here.
| Mashed Potatoes with Dandelion Greens & Carmelized Onions |
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1 tablespoon dark-brown sugar
- salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste
- 1/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup cream, heated
- 1 bunch dandelion greens, washed and coarsely chopped
- Place potatoes and 2 teaspoons salt in a large pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium high; cook until tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Drain, return to pot, and keep warm.
- While potatoes are cooking, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onions and brown sugar, and a dash of salt and pepper; saute, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 20 minutes. Set aside.
- As onions are carmelizing, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Place dandelion greens into boiling water, lower heat to medium, and cook until tender, about 7-10 minutes. Drain the greens and run under cold water to stop the cooking.
- While potatoes are still hot, roughly mash using a large fork or a potato masher. Add hot milk and cream, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder; mash to combine. Stir in half the onions and the cooked greens.
- Place potatoes in bowl; top with remaining onions. Serve hot.
This post was shared here: My Meatless Mondays, Melt in Your Mouth Mondays, Just Another Meatless Monday, Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Foodie Friday,
[tssig]
Since learning more about dandelions, their health benefits, and their culinary uses, we’ve been trying them out in a few recipes. The cold snap finally broke here in Toronto, and the three of us went back to the yard and happily picked some greens to use in our dinner.
