Old-fashioned coffee made from dandelion
Solla Eiríks
Award winning Icelandic raw food chef Solla Eiríksdóttir who is also the owner of the ever popular Gló restaurant chain, has started a new culinary blog in Icelandic with her daughter Hildur. They've shared a recipe with mbl.is using Icelandic garden weeds to make a delicious, aromatic coffee.
"We roasted freshly picked dandelion root from our garden, made coffee and made a dandelion latte flavoured with vanilla and almond. In Iceland, as in many other places, people used to use dandelion root to make subsitute coffee as coffee was very expensive in earlier times and was considered a luxury product. "
The bright yellow dandelion flower evokes mixed feelings, they're both a cheerful summer flower but at the same time they're considered a weed, as it spreads fast, they write.
"We found it quite funny when a British friend came over for a visit and was full of admiration for the dandelions in our garden. She said she knew people who planted dandelion seeds to grow the flower to make herbal tea. The dandelion has been used for centuries in many continents for its healing benefits. The dandelion is considered to have diuretic properties and is used to strenghten the liver and the digestive system."
Once the dandelion roots have been cleaned we cut them into small pieces and then rinsed them again. Next, we put them in a blender for a short time.
The ground up roots then go into the oven on a tray, keeping the oven slightly open to help to dry them. We leave them in the oven for around 2 hours at 120°C.
We finely grind the roasted roots to make coffee, just as you would when using coffee beans.
Aromatic dandelion root coffee
1/4 teaspoons vanilla powder
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