Chocolate covered roasted dandelions

First off....I do like bitter.  Just wanted to get that out in the open.  So this morning while planting seeds in the garden I noticed some nice dandelions in my planting bed.  With that bed being moist and with loose soil I decided to pull them for their roots....and they were quite lovely.  So I used that as an excuse to stop working and to start cooking :)  I washed, chopped and roasted them.  Usually I'd then grind them and use them for coffee, but today I just starting chomping on them and then decided that since I like chocolate covered coffee beans then why wouldn't I like these coated in chocolate too....turns out that I do and I like them enough to share a pic with you all.  Kind of reminds me of chocolate covered rice crispies if the rice crispies were bitter :)

Update....they are half gone already.  

I really like bitter also...and I love chocolate ...sounds great!

So, chopped and roasted in the oven until dry and toasted?

We have lovely dandelions here this year also, the blooms have been giant and for some reason on big long stems.

Haven't checked their roots but I imagine they are large as many of them have been there for a few years.


You've got me wondering about the chicory root also now?  I like the early greens but have not used any roots.

Do it Judith...chicory has to be good too!

I roasted mine at 350F and then just kept half an eye on them until they were nicely browned.  My apologies, I didn't notice the time it took, but I did notice how nice they smelled roasting.  Try to cut them (I just used my kitchen shears) to similar size as smaller ones will tend to burn otherwise.  Then just throw a bowl as a cover on a small pot of boiling water, melt the chocolate in the bowl, then dump in the roasted dandelion/chicory, stir them to coat, spoon them onto something the chocolate won't stick to (I used parchment) and throw them in the fridge to set....voila!

Should I be ashamed?  I mean there weren't that many and I'm sure I'll get those seeds planted tomorrow!

Yum!!! I could even do that with stevia-sweetened chocolate, to keep the carbs down!

Carla Burke wrote:Yum!!! I could even do that with stevia-sweetened chocolate, to keep the carbs down!

Then it would be a totally power/health food Carla!  When they ask how you made it to 120 you can tell them it was these :)

don't go far from the toilet! I've got an amazing crop of them this year, I never use them for anything I tried wine 3x and it was undrinkable all 3 times. (loath bitter flavours and do not drink any hot drinks)

I eat dandelion flowers with raw vegan chocolate, a great combination.



Flower Lab

You had me at chocolate covered. I'm not really fond of ginger, but I've had some pretty good chocolate covered ginger. I must try the dandelions

Skandi Rogers wrote:don't go far from the toilet! I've got an amazing crop of them this year, I never use them for anything I tried wine 3x and it was undrinkable all 3 times. (loath bitter flavours and do not drink any hot drinks)

So far so good!  Honestly, I can't say that I've ever noticed that effect on me with dandelion root.  I've been drinking the tea/coffee for years....maybe that helps?

Dale Hodgins wrote:You had me at chocolate covered. I'm not really fond of ginger, but I've had some pretty good chocolate covered ginger. I must try the dandelions

I also posted today on some rhubarb catsup but no replies there.  I'll have to change the title to "Chocolate covered rhubarb catsup" and then we'll see what happens!  (actually….chocolate covered candied rhubarb sounds pretty good....might make that next)

candied rhubarb sounds wonderful, but how would you stop it falling apart?

Skandi Rogers wrote:candied rhubarb sounds wonderful, but how would you stop it falling apart?

Hmmm....hadn't thought that far ahead....good question.  Stay tuned.  It will be a bit before my rhubarb is ready to pick.  Hopefully I'll come up with something by then

Jackson Bo wrote:I eat dandelion flowers with raw vegan chocolate, a great combination.

Flower Lab

Nice thinking! I want to try that now.

Greg Martin wrote:

Skandi Rogers wrote:candied rhubarb sounds wonderful, but how would you stop it falling apart?

Hmmm....hadn't thought that far ahead....good question.  Stay tuned.  It will be a bit before my rhubarb is ready to pick.  Hopefully I'll come up with something by then

Hi Skandi.  I picked too much rhubarb and had a left over stalk sitting on my counter.  Suddenly I remembered that I was supposed to try and candy some so I gave an idea a go.  I peeled and chopped it, then threw it in a bowl and buried the pieces in sugar.  By the next day the rhubarb chunks had shrunk significantly and were sitting in rhubarb syrup.  I tried a piece, but too chewy.  So next I put the pieces and their syrup into a sauce pan and brought them to a simmer.  This caused the pieces to start to expand and soften.  Before they got too soft I pulled them from the syrup and allowed them to cool and dry on a plate.  Wow!  Super good sweet tart rhubarb candy.  I got a pint of rhubarb syrup out of it as well that I'm sure will be great on vanilla ice cream, but I really want to play around with that in drinks.  If anyone has ideas for that shoot them my way

I think pulling the rhubarb juice out first with the sugar was important in making the pieces stay whole.  If I had simmered them longer they still probably would have fallen apart.  But these came out perfect.  Before I ate them all (they are all gone now....forgot to chocolate coat any!) I remembered to take a picture.  I think the pieces ended up shrinking about 75% or more from their fresh cut size.  This was from a large stalked variety.  I have an old green variety with much thinner stalks and I'm guessing they have less water and will shrink to a similar size....next experiment along with chocolate coating, which I think might be amazing.

Hmmmm.... I might have to try this! Greg, can you give a rough guesstimate of the rhubarb:sugar ratio you used?

I just surrounded them with sugar for this first go around.  Next time I think I will go 1:1 by volume rather than just winging it to have a measure.  Maybe that will be too much, but not sure.  Mainly I just wanted to have the fruit surrounded with no air pockets so the sugar can do a good job extracting the juice and infiltrating the chunks.

I’m so glad I came across this post. I’ve never roasted dandelion root before although I enjoy cooking the leaves. I just tried purchased roasted dandelion and chicory tea for the first time, attempting to drink less coffee. Now you’ve got me wanting to make dandelion snacks.