1 Dandelion Green Salad with Kumquats and Lemon-Honey Vinaigrette

This was one of my favorite things about hosting the Foodbuzz 24 x 24 dinner.  I'd never had a kumquat before, but saw they were in season and looked so cute I couldn't resist.   They are so fun to eat!  You roll it like you would a lemon before slicing.  It gets the sweetness of the skin into the tart fruit.  You can even eat them whole like grapes!  (Just watch out for a seed or two)

And those my friends are Dandelion greens!  Yep, the greens from that cute little yellow flower that later turns into a magical wish maker.  It's important to buy Organic Dandelion greens since so many are treated as weeds with herbicide.  Definitely don't want to be eating that!  

The greens have a bitter taste so I mixed them with some lighter Butter lettuce to mellow out the flavor.  

The vinaigrette really just brings everything together.  I need to make homemade salad dressing more often, I'm going to make that a goal.  It always tastes so much better than the stuff from the store.  Drizzle it over the top and you have a fresh, spring salad!  I'm thinking of serving this for Easter.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup Dandelion Leaves, chopped

1 Bag Butter Lettuce Salad (or other salad mix)

8-10 Kumquats, sliced

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice

1 tsp. Local Honey

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp Garlic, minced (or 1/4 tsp of Powder)

Mix greens and kumquats together in a large bowl.  Then in a smaller bowl mix the Olive oil, Lemon Juice, Honey, Salt & Pepper, and garlic together.  Drizzle evenly over the salad and enjoy!