Have you been growing dandelion in a garden for long? Are you addicted to bitter taste? Did you find it strange to have because of its taste just like a glass of wine or beer? Dandelion is an herb that has been in use for centuries.
Though there are not many pieces of scientific evidence available, Dandelion is considered to be helpful in case of loss of appetite, intestinal gas, stomach ulcers, muscle aches, joint pains, etc. It is counted among the best remedy for cancer and viral infections.
But how do you consume it? People around either prefer to eat it raw thanks to its bitter addictive taste or use it in salads, soups, wines or teas.
Dandelion tea is the quickest to prepare and the article will guide you through the interesting facts and recipes of dandelion tea.
Interesting facts about Dandelion Tea
- There are different varieties available of dandelion tea but the most commonly used dandelion tea is scientifically called as Taraxacum Officinale.
- This plant evolved in Eurasia about 30 million years ago.
- Dandelion plant grows in the field and people often consider it as the weed as they are not aware of its beneficiary.
- Dandelion plant supplements nutrients to the top soil and adds various minerals and nutrients and nitrogen to the soil.
- It attracts insects for pollination and releases ethylene gas which helps the fruit to ripen up properly.
- The combination of four dandelion flowers is the emblem of white sulfur spring and citizens of West Virginia also celebrate spring season as dandelion festival every year.
Quick DIY Dandelion Recipes
Dandelion Tea
Interestingly, there are many recipes available to consume dandelion plant in your meal every day. Among all, one of the best ways to consume dandelion plant is dandelion tea.
- You can make dandelion tea by using its flowers and roots.
- To prepare this, you simply have to leave dandelion roots and flowers in the boiling water with the low flame and leave this mixture for almost 30 minutes.
- Drain the solution from roots and flowers. The tea is ready to be served.
Dandelion Tea Recipes and Ingredients
If you want to prepare dandelion tea, then you will have to get hold of some good and fresh leaves. Clean these leaves and dry under the sun.
Once it dries up you can use those alone to make tea or along with other herbs. Naturally, the taste of dandelion leaves is bitter, so it is a good option to mix it with other herbs while preparing tea.
Ingredients that you will require for Dandelion Tea are
- 1 part of dandelion fresh leaves (make sure that after plucking them up you have left it in sun to make them dry)
- 1 part of organic peppermint leaves
- Quarter part of organic stevia leaves
- 1 part of organic cleavers herbs
The graphic below shows different recipes for dandelion tea:
Consuming dandelion tea without any other herb can improve digestion. If combined with mint flavor, the addition of antioxidants is likely to happen whereas addition of stevia leaves will make it sweet and help to improve your digestive system.
Another way is to mix all organic herbs and leaves together and put them in a well-labeled airtight glass container. This mixture can be thus used as tea leaves and can be served either hot or cold.
Coffee
Another recipe to make coffee beverage using dandelion.
- Clean the roots with running water and make sure that soil is washed away completely.
- After this, chop roots using the food processor and wrap in a baking sheet to roast at 300 degrees in an oven for at least 2 hours.
- Then dip it in water for another 10 minutes and your drink is ready.
Salad
Leaves of dandelion plants can be used as fresh salad. You can boil these leaves and add a pinch of salt. Serve it with lemon juice.
Way To Use Dandelion Plants
It is very easy to cut leaves of dandelion plants and wash them under running water and then add to your salad. The process is quick and easy but make sure that the leaves that you use are not affected by any kind pesticides or insecticide. This will lead to the decrement in the nutrients of plants.
Benefits And Wonders Of Dandelion Tea
A study highlights number of benefits offered by dandelion plant. Some of natural benefits are:
1. Protects Your Bones
- Calcium requirements of a human body are very high. Drinking Dandelion tea on the daily basis can contribute to almost 10% of our daily requirements.
- It helps to maintain the calcium levels of the teeth and bones of our body and keep them strong.
- It is also helpful in case of blood clotting, muscle contraction, and hormone secretion.
2. Rich In Vitamin K
- Vitamin K plays a vital role in keeping bones and heart healthy. Consumption of dandelion is a great option to prevent the deficiency of vitamin K.
- Also, it is a good component in bone mineralization. Vitamin K builds bones far better in comparison to calcium and thus reduces the chances of fracture.
- It also helps in regulating the metabolism of the body and functioning of the brain.
- Moreover, vitamin K helps women at the time of menstrual bleeding because it has the property of blood clotting. It is next to be considered as the effective treatment for cancer, reduce the chances of the colon, stomach, nasal and oral cancers.
3. Act As A Liver Cleanser
- The vital role of our liver is to produce bile, which helps in breaking down fats into fatty acids and thus filter and detoxify your live as well as blood.
- It has the great ability to store amino acids, helps to synthesize and metabolize fats and cholesterol and regulate our internal functioning.
- The nutrients present in dandelions helps in liver cleanse and allow them to work properly.
- It also has vitamin C which helps in the absorption of minerals and reduces the chance of development of any other disease.
4. Fight Against Diabetes
- It helps to stimulate the production of insulin from the pancreas and helps in decreasing the level of sugar. If pancreas fails to function properly and levels of insulin don’t stay regulated then it results in diabetes.
- Glucose thus cannot be utilized properly and leads to increase in the level of sugar in blood streams.
- Dandelions help to fight against diabetes naturally and remove all excess sugar stored in our body.
5. Fight Against Skin Infections
- The white milky substance that gets stick to your hands when you break down the stem of dandelions, is actually great for your skin.
- The sap of dandelion has germicidal, insecticidal and fungicidal properties.
- Also, it cures the major skin issues like eczema, psoriasis, ringworm and other related skin problems.
6. Rich In Fibers
- Dandelion green and tea acts as a beneficial aid to keep intestines healthy and regulate digestion system.
- Fiber works to draw excessive fluids present in your body and thus add bulk to your stool.
- It reduces the chance of obesity, diabetes, and heart-related problems.
- It also has the power to reduce the chance of some cancers and prevent your body from heart disease.
7. Rich In Vitamin A
Vitamin A plays a vital role in maintaining healthy vision, skin, and neurological functioning. Only a cup of dandelion tea has 100% of the value of Vitamin A.
So, one can reduce premature aging, and infections related to respiratory and vision impairment. It supports the immune system of your body and helps in maintaining healthy skin.
It prevents your body from cancer. One mug of dandelion tea is great for pregnant women. Pregnant women might suffer from the night blindness if the intake of vitamin A is low.
8. Prevents Urinary Tract Infections
This tea helps you to prevent your body from urinary tract infection, bladder disorder, and kidney problem as well as prevents woman in producing cyst in their reproductive organs.
Precautions and Warnings
- Never ever dig a plant of dandelion in a place which is unfamiliar to you, like a park near to your place. You won’t get any idea about the soil and use of insecticides and pesticides by the owner of the land. The plant might be mistreated and would thus result in an unhealthy dandelion.
- Before directly consuming dandelion tea or leaves in any form, consult a physician for the same. If your physician agrees after assessing your body requirements then you can start having dandelion tea as per their prescription. Over consumption of dandelion tea might result in side effects.
Tips
- Dried roots of dandelion plants are woodier in nature in comparison with fresh root pieces. If you use dried roots in the boiling water, it hardly takes 5 to 10 minutes to infuse in water whereas the fresh roots will slowly infuse in the boiling water and might take a little longer.
- To add nutrients and taste of herbs to the tea, you can add chopped leaves along with the roots and other herbal leaves as well.
Dandelion Tea Is A Blessing For Us
Those who settled earlier in parts of Europe, consider dandelion plant as the best food source and medicinal herb for human beings. It was then introduced in America and gained popularity globally
It has many nutritional benefits like an excess amount of beta carotene as compared to carrot, iron as compared to spinach, and the nutrients like zinc, magnesium, protein and vitamin are present in a great quantity.
One cup of dandelion tea contains almost 112% of vitamin A, around 32% of vitamin C and 535% of vitamin K. it is not only useful for human beings but acts as great food for birds as well.
