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There’s a little shop in my city which sells all sorts of organic produce from a local farm. I like to getting my nutrient dense vegetables there, especially kale and other salad greens. One weekend I noticed they had particular fresh and lovely salad greens labelled with a sign “Pissenlit” written on it. Pissenlit is the French word for Dandelion and I thought to give it a try, since I had never eaten such leaves before. The French name has an interesting origin to it as it means ‘wet the bed’, given it’s diuretic properties. I haven’t experienced any effects though, so I’m guessing you’ll need to consume a LOT of it in order to experience the diuretic powers!
Ever since I received the 16-cup Breville Sous Chef Food Processor as a birthday gift from my husband, I’ve been experimenting recipes with the food processor and the power and speed is just simply impressive. It’s even made my husband venture into the kitchen (he’s now the default smoothie maker)!
So I decided to whizz up the pissenlit/ dandelion greens and turn it into a tasty sauce with plenty of umami. It’s similar to pesto, but it does not contain any garlic! If you’re sensitive to garlic and nuts, you’d be glad to know that it does not taste like it’s lacking flavour.
This recipe uses tiger nut flour, which gives the sauce body and texture without being grainy. The addition of nutritional yeast provides a cheesy umami taste, and ume shiso salt gives it a nice tangy flavour. I get these at the local health food store, but if you’re unable to find ume shiso salt, you could substitute it with ume plum vinegar to taste instead.
The resulting sauce is very versatile, I like to use it as a marinade or accompanying sauce for meats, mixed with extra virgin olive oil as a dip for carrot sticks and other raw vegetables, or even as a salad dressing. If you’re unable to find the greens where you live, look for young and slightly bitter tasting greens. Baby Arugula or roquette would be a good substitute. Once stored in the refrigerator, it’s good for a week or two, though I’ve kept mine for longer than that without any noticeable change in flavour or spoilage.
- 2 packed cups small dandelion greens
- 3 tbsp tiger nut flour
- 2 - 4 tbsp nutritional yeast (put less if you don't really fancy the taste)
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp ume shiso salt
- ½ tsp sea salt
- Place all the ingredients in a food processor fitted with the 'S' blade.
- Blend until a sauce-like paste forms.
- Transfer into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator.
