regnum-plantae:Dandelion coffee, the Italian takeAs soon as I got access to my new allotment I start
regnum-plantae:Dandelion coffee, the Italian takeAs soon as I got access to my new allotment I started harvesting and eating the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) greens to weaken the numerous plants that had taken hold of the borders and walkways, as I used to do with my grandparents when I was little. They quickly started growing back, so yesterday I decided to uproot the ones growing in the most inconvenient places, and that’s when I dug up one which is no doubt the largest I had ever seen. Dandelion root is a tad too bitter to be enjoyed prepared like most other root vegetables, but I thought I could try to turn it into coffee, which I had never attempted before.I washed and scrubbed the roots well before chopping them up thinly, then I roasted them in the oven until brown, ground them up and stuffed them in my moka pot, which is what we use in Italy to brew coffee. I’m now sipping the result as I write this, and let me tell you, this is better than the real thing to me! I am not a big coffee drinker and prefer an espresso at the bar to any other kind you could get, but my boyfriend, who’s an addict, agreed this is really interesting. It has the bitterness and roasted aroma of coffee, but also its own unique flavour, and doesn’t leave a heavy, acidic aftertaste in your mouth (which I’m aware is what a lot of people enjoy, I don’t). It certainly is a time-consuming process for a simple drink, and requires a lot of raw material, but now that I tried it, if I had a field to harvest, I’d spend a day preparing it to have enough to last me a while! -- source link
#dandelion#dandelion coffee#edible plants#regnumplantae