How to Make Wild Dandelion Jelly Recipe| In Your Kitchen
Spring has arrived and it’s time to keep an eye out for all the beautiful flowers to forage, including the common dandelion! Dandelions (taraxacum officinale) have yellow flower petals that are packed with vitamins and nutrients. Although the whole plant can be consumed, this dandelion jelly recipe uses just the dandelion flower heads.
Sarah Barron is the Wisconsin-based creator of LittleLovelyWhatnots, an online presence, and shop devoted to mindful expression, intuition, and appreciation of native flora and fauna. She is an avid forager and one of her favorite spring foraging activities is collecting dandelion flowers to make dandelion jelly! We are thrilled to share her recipe with A Farm to Keep readers today!
Why Eat Dandelions?
Dandelions, although often considered an annoying weed, all parts of the dandelions have been used in food for centuries. There are many dandelion recipes that include dandelion blossoms, leaves, roots, and stems. Including dandelion tea, dandelion honey, and even dandelion wine. Dandelions are an easy beginner-foraging plant, as they are easy to identify, they are very common all across the United States, and you can most likely find them in your own backyard. Dandelions are the perfect way for any curious plant-lover to begin enjoying the fun of foraging.
What are the Health Benefits of Dandelions?
Dandelions are packed with incredible health benefits. All parts of the dandelion have been used to aid digestion and stimulate appetite. The flowers contain high levels of antioxidants, while the leaves have nutrients that support kidney function, while herbalists have long used dandelion roots to address liver and gallbladder needs.
What Does Dandelion Jelly Taste like?
Dandelion jelly tastes a little like honey. Which makes sense, right? Bees love dandelions for their high nectar production, so much of our wildflower honey we enjoy contains dandelion nectar. Although, you’re going to have to make a batch yourself and see!
Making Floral Jellies is a Spring Seasonal favorite
Making jelly from flowers is one of our favorite spring seasonal pastimes. The scents and flavors are so unique, and the colors of the jellies are always stunning. If you find making dandelion jelly intriguing, then you may also like our hibiscus flower jelly recipe too. Make sure to pin both of these recipes to save for later!
Thank you, Sarah, for joining us here on A Farm to Keep and sharing your incredible botanical work. You can read more about Sarah and her work in this season’s Botanical Anthology Magazine.
Did You Know You Can Eat Dandelions?
Did you know that you can make jelly from dandelion flowers? It’s true! Or maybe, this is your first time discovering that those weeds that clutter lawns in the spring in summer are edible. Dandelion jelly is so simple to make and is a resourceful way to turn a weed into a tasty and healthy food.
Dandelions Are A Spring Forager’s Delight
Dandelions are a cheery harbinger of spring and a forager’s delight. Their leaves and roots have many touted uses, but the flowers have mostly just held their place as the soft yellow blush on children’s cheeks. But those feathery petals, when steeped and sugared, create the lightest honey-like jelly one could have. This vegan “honey” is delicious on homemade bread, pancakes, in jam cookies, and more!
Instructions for Making Wild Dandelion Jelly
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Dandelion jelly Ingredients
½ cup yellow dandelion petals, packed
1 cup boiling water
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 ½ tsp lemon juice
1 ½ tsp powdered pectin
Dandelion jelly Tools
1 Large Saucepan
half pint jars Mason Jar + Lids
Method for Making Wild Dandelion Jelly Recipe
First thing, start by collecting fresh dandelion flowers. During the dandelion season, there should be plenty of dandelions to create your jelly, so don’t worry about collecting too many.
The next step is popping off the dandelion blossom from the stems and collecting the cups of dandelion petals.
You can use kitchen scissors to remove the green part of the dandelion including the sepals and calyx and leave just the yellow petals. Remove as much of the green parts as possible as they will bitter the jelly.
Place the dandelion flower heads into a bowl or large container.
In a tea kettle, or on the stove, heat up one cup of water and bring it to a boil. Then, pour the boiling water into the bowl with the yellow petals. Stir to submerge all of the petals into the hot water.
Cover the bowl and steep the dandelions for 24 hours. The water will become room temperature. The result will be dandelion petal tea.
Use a fine mesh strainer, coffee filter, or cheesecloth to separate the petals from the liquid. Pour the dandelions and their liquid through the straining device to separate the steeped liquid from the dandelion flower heads. Collect the liquid in a large saucepan.
Next, juice the lemon and add the tablespoons of lemon juice and pectin into the large pot with the dandelion liquid. At this point, you will have several cups of liquid.
Bring the ingredients to a full rolling boil and slowly add the cups of sugar, stirring frequently. Be careful of the hot water as you stir.
Boil for 1-2 minutes, or as long as the pectin directions state to set the jelly.
Remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour homemade dandelion jelly int into the canning jars.
Keep jelly in the refrigerator.
Dandelion jelly Notes
- 1 cup of freshly picked dandelion flowers will yield about 1/2 packed cups of petals.
- Make sure to collect flowers away from roadsides and not in areas exposed to chemicals.
- This can be made in larger, shelf-stable batches by consulting canning books and resources.
- Use the dandelion heads of the flowers that are in full bloom.
- This recipe makes small batches of jelly.
Wild Dandelion Jelly Recipe
Turn a common weed, dandelion blossoms, into a tasty and unique jelly. This jelly is fun to make and results in a tasty spring treat. Created by Sarah Barron of LittleLovelyWhatnots.
Ingredients
- ½ cup yellow dandelion petals, packed ½ cup yellow dandelion petals, packed
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ tsp powdered pectin
Instructions
- First thing, start by collecting fresh dandelion flowers. During the dandelion season, there should be plenty of dandelions to create your jelly, so don't worry about collecting too many.
- The next step is popping off the dandelion blossom from the stems and collecting the cups of dandelion petals.
- You can use kitchen scissors to remove the green part of the dandelion including the sepals and calyx and leave just the yellow petals. Remove as much of the green parts as possible as they will bitter the jelly.
- Place the dandelion flower heads into a bowl or large container.
- In a tea kettle, or on the stove, heat up one cup of water and bring it to a boil. Then, pour the boiling water into the bowl with the yellow petals. Stir to submerge all of the petals into the hot water.
- Cover the bowl and steep the dandelions for 24 hours. The water will become room temperature. The result will be dandelion petal tea.
- Use a fine mesh strainer, coffee filter, or cheesecloth to separate the petals from the liquid. Pour the dandelions and their liquid through the straining device to separate the steeped liquid from the dandelion flower heads. Collect the liquid in a large saucepan.
- Next, juice the lemon and add the tablespoons of lemon juice and pectin into the large pot with the dandelion liquid. At this point, you will have several cups of liquid.
- Bring the ingredients to a full rolling boil and slowly add the cups of sugar, stirring frequently. Be careful of the hot water as you stir.
- Boil for 1-2 minutes, or as long as the pectin directions state to set the jelly.
- Remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour homemade dandelion jelly int into the canning jars.
- Keep jelly in the refrigerator.
Notes
- 1 cup of freshly picked dandelion flowers will yield about 1/2 packed cups of petals.
- Make sure to collect flowers away from roadsides and not in areas exposed to chemicals.
- This can be made in larger, shelf-stable batches by consulting canning books and resources.
- Use the dandelion heads of the flowers that are in full bloom.
- This recipe makes small batches of jelly.
Get Your Copy of the Botanical Anthology
Botanical Anthology Spring Edition
Botanical Anthology is a quarterly A plant lover’s dream, it is a seasonal, plant-centered digital quarterly publication bringing you over 55 articles from 42 contributors to incorporate herbs in your apothecary, kitchen, spring foraging, gardening, crafts, and celebrations.
What’s Inside the Spring Edition?
* Sip on carrot ginger shrub, chaga dandelion latte + nettle ginger beer
* Stuff magnolia leaves, make spring soups + bake a viola cake
* Whip up a lilac toner, steep spring bitters, + infuse a chaparral oil
* Forage hawthorn, red clover + tree buds
* Grow sea buckthorn + an herbal tea garden
* Create confetti egg poppers, dye with tulips + make wax sachets
* Celebrate Spring Equinox, Beltane, Earth Day, Mother’s Day + Father’s Day with simple observances
*Meet Lauren May of Must Love Herbs
Get Your Copy today and receive the bonus nettle booklet when you purchase between March 20th-March 29th, 2023!
Meet Sarah
Sarah is the Wisconsin-based creator of LittleLovelyWhatnots, an online presence, and shop devoted to mindful expression, intuition, and appreciation of native flora and fauna. Connect with her on all social platforms @LittleLovelyWhatnots or on her website www.littlelovelywhatnots.com
What a great way to make use of something that’s free and so abundant! I’ll definitely have to try this!
This has been on my to-do list for the last several years! Thanks for the recipe!
I love making dandelion jelly. Such a fun thing to pick the dandelions in the spring. I wish more people saw dandelions as a useful plant and not an annoying weed needing to be sprayed.