Dandelion is a popular flower in cooking. In the preparation of dishes, all parts of this plant have long been used. Jam is made of hats, salads are made of leaves, drinks are made of root, and medicinal infusions are made of juice.
Dandelion is a unique, tasty and healthy plant, which in most cases is mistaken for a weed and is treated accordingly, which is very vain! After all, from this incredible flower you can make a delicious, amber jam, which in its structure, color and taste is very similar to honey. To give the jam a special taste, it is customary to add citrus juice, strawberry, currant or cherry leaves to the flowers of dandelion.
Dandelion jam with lemon - general principles of preparation
To make jam, dandelion flowers need to be collected in spring in fine sunny weather, preferably in the morning. Jam from them must be done immediately, otherwise they will fade.
Blow dandelions with cold water and cut the stems with leaves. Then, so that all the living creatures come out of the flowers, immerse them in water. If you do not want the pollen to wash off, just shake the flowers and lay them for half an hour on a flat surface.
You can make jam with a green stalk or only from yellow petals. In the second case, the green part should simply be cut with scissors.
During cooking, you need to try to maintain all the usefulness of dandelions. To do this, do not strain the jam immediately after cooking, you need to let it brew for at least half a day. After squeezing the jam, you can boil it again. Filtering a decoction of flowers is better through gauze or a linen napkin.
Lemon jam can be safely replaced with citric acid. This will not particularly affect the taste, but the usefulness of the dish will slightly decrease. Also in the jam you can add any other fruit to taste.
Dandelion jam with lemon - classic recipe
Ingredients:
• 400 g of yellow dandelion flowers;
• 1 kg 200 g of granulated sugar;
• two lemons;
• half a liter of boiled water.
Cooking method:
1. First you need to process dandelion flowers. They need to be cleaned from stems and leaves, put in a large bowl and pour cool water. Leave for a day. During this time, excess bitterness will leave the flowers, and all the small insects that may be in the petals will come out.
2. Wash lemons, rinse with boiling water and rinse with cold water. Remove the zest from the lemons. This can be done with a special tool or cut with a knife. Then the zest should be crushed into a small cube or grated. Cut the lemons themselves in half and squeeze the juice out of them.
3. Drain the bitter water, squeeze the flowers, transfer them to the pan and pour boiled water. Put the pan on the stove and add sugar, juice and lemon zest. Stir everything well. Cook with stirring for about 15 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat, leave the pan open for about an hour. Put on moderate heat again and cook, stirring constantly, for another 10 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat again and leave the pan with jam for 30-40 minutes.
6. For the last time, put the pan on the fire and cook for 10-15 minutes.
7. Turn off the fire, and leave the pan open for the natural cooling of the jam. After that, you can transfer the jam in sterilized jars and cork for further storage.
8. This jam is perfect for medicinal use.
Dandelion Jam with Lemon and Fruit
Ingredients:
• 400 g of dandelion flowers;
• 1 kg of granulated sugar;
• half a liter of boiled water;
• one orange;
• two lemons;
• one pear.
Cooking method:
1. Sort dandelion flowers, peel stems and leaves, pour cold water and leave for 24 hours. Then drain the water and squeeze the flowers.
2. Scalp orange and lemons with boiling water and wash with cold water. Cut the zest and finely chop it. Cut into two halves and get juice.
3. Wash and peel the pear, chop the pulp in mashed potatoes.
4. Combine the flowers, zest and citrus juice, water and sugar in a pan. Close it with a lid and insist for about three hours. Strain.
5. Stir the food in a saucepan and put on fire. Boil with constant stirring over moderate heat for about an hour. Remove the foam that appears on the surface of the jam.
6. Then cool the jam and roll into sterilized jars.
7. This jam is perfect as a sauce for pancakes.
Dandelion jam with lemon and cherry and currant leaves
Ingredients:
• 400 g of dandelion flowers;
• two kilograms of sugar;
• three lemons;
• 100 g of cherry and currant leaves;
• one and a half liters of boiled water.
Cooking method:
1. Wash and scald lemons with boiling water, rinse with cold water. Without peeling, cut the lemon into pieces and put in a blender bowl. Grind into gruel.
2. Sort out the dandelions, rinse, pull out the yellow petals from each flower and place them in a pan.
3. Sort the leaves of cherries and currants, select only whole, not damaged. Rinse and dry a little.
4. Add to the pan to the dandelion flowers leaves of cherry and currant, mix. Then introduce gruel from the leaves to the leaves and flowers.
5. Bring the water to a boil and pour into the pan to the products. Leave for 24 hours to insist.
6. Filter the infusion and squeeze out its ingredients with your hands.
7. Pour the infusion into the pan and add sugar to it. Stir and heat the stove.
8. Cook jam on low heat, constantly stirring with a spatula or ladle. Be sure to remove the foam.
9. Cook until thickened. It will take about an hour.
10. Put the prepared jam to cool directly in the pan, and then pour into sterilized jars.
11. This jam is perfect for soaking biscuit cakes or muffins.
Dandelion jam with lemon, mint and tangerines
Ingredients:
• two medium lemons or 120 ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice;
• 500 g of yellow dandelion flower petals;
• 50 g of fresh mint leaves;
• three tangerines;
• two kilograms of sugar;
• one and a half liters of boiled water.
Cooking method:
1. Prepare yellow petals from dandelion flowers in advance.
2. Wash lemons and tangerines, cut in half and squeeze the juice in any convenient way.
3. To sort and wash mint leaves.
4. Put the dandelion petals, mint leaves in the pan, pour the juice of tangerines and lemons. Close the lid and insist in a cold place for a day.
5. Then strain the infusion, squeeze the petals.
6. The resulting mixture is mixed with sugar and cook on low heat with constant stirring until the syrup thickens. Ready jam will have a golden color.
7. Cool and prepare the jam for the winter.
8. You can serve with curd cheesecakes, pancakes or just for tea.
Dandelion jam with lemon and pomegranate
Ingredients:
• 500 g of yellow dandelion petals;
• two lemons;
• one pomegranate;
• 1.5 liters of water;
• 2 kg of granulated sugar.
Cooking method:
1. To sort through the flowers of dandelion, rinse and pull out the yellow petals. They should be about half a kilo. Grind them into gruel with a blender.
2. Wash lemons, add boiling water and rinse with cold water. Then grind the lemons in mashed potatoes along with the skin. This can be done using a blender or meat grinder.
3. Wash the garnet, wipe and slightly beat on the table on all sides for softness or roll the grenade on the table, while pressing on it with force. Then cut the pomegranate in half and wrap each half with two layers of gauze. Squeeze juice from each half into a bowl.
4. Put pomegranate juice, ground dandelion flowers, boiled water and lemon puree into the pan. Leave the prepared mass for several hours in a cool place.
5. Then mix the contents of the pan with sugar and cook the jam until thickened. In this case, you need to constantly stir it and remove the foam.
6. If desired, roll jam in sterilized jars for the winter.
7. Serve with sweet homemade cakes.
Dandelion jam with lemon, grapefruit and apple.
Ingredients:
• 500 g of yellow dandelion flowers;
• one ripe grapefruit;
• one lemon;
• one orange;
• 4 medium apples;
• 1.2 kg of granulated sugar.
Cooking method:
1. To sort through flowers, to clean. Only the yellow parts of the flowers are needed. Wash them, dry and mashed.
2. Wash the fruits. Peel the grapefruit, lemon and orange and squeeze the juice.
3. Peel the apple, core, and chop the pulp in mashed potatoes.
4. Mix applesauce and citrus juice, add 1 liter of water. Put the pan with the ingredients on a slow cooker. Gradually add sugar. Stir the jam with the cooker throughout the cooking process (about 1 hour).
5. Cool the jam and put it in jars.
6. Serve this sweetness with oatmeal.
Dandelion Jam with Lemon - Tips and Tricks
• Keep in mind that green sepals can produce bitterness with jam. To avoid this, they are either cut off or the flowers are soaked for a long time in water, which is then drained.
• For a piquant taste, add ground cinnamon or vanilla sugar to the decoction of the flowers.
• It is better not to use an enameled pan for cooking jam, otherwise it may stain.
• Before pouring the jam into the jars, it is better to taste it, otherwise add the missing ingredients.
• As a medicine, it is recommended to dissolve a spoonful of jam in a glass with any liquid and consume this mixture every morning on an empty stomach. For example, can be dissolved in green tea or milk thistle solution.
• You can soak biscuit cakes with this jam.
