What’s in YOUR salad?

According to somewhere on the un-impeachable wisdom of the internet, we are told that 55 grams of leafy dandelion greens (that’s about ¼ of a cup, again, ibid source of information) can supply 112% of our daily need for Vitamin A.  This, naturally, depends on several things:

1. That our need for Vitamin A won’t be redefined in the near future, (like it’s cousin, Vit-D)
2. That the internet is correct (a discomfiting assumption)
3. That we can get past our aversion to eating what we all grew up calling “weeds”.

I should insert here that I have acquired a mildly humorous reputation at work as a health nut, that is, being willing to try otherwise unconventional things in the name of “wellness”.  I’m seriously not much of a cook, I use measuring cups as scoops only, and being chained to a recipe only annoys me. 

With that context in mind, our wonderful team of professional health-promoters here in our small Midwestern town has initiated a First Annual Green Salad Recipe with some serious cash prizes that go specifically to purchasing items at our Saturday morning farmers’ market (which is also wonderful). 

I decided to enter.  Here was my offering:
Aside from the shameless self-promotion by adding my URL at the bottom of the page, I was happy to support their project with my contribution, albeit somewhat alternative.  It also gives me pause to consider yet again how I am so apt to look at things/situations/and (gasp…dare I admit it) people, as useless or worse (“weedy”) without perceiving and promoting the merit that is hidden.  In the words of C.S.Lewis, “God, help me; God, help me!”

Accordingly, I have a select few dandelion delights being cultivated in my garden alongside the kale and the chard.  After my husband read my recipe, using the term loosely, he said to me—

“Have I been eating dandelions…??”

Little did he know.