Dandelion recipes-dandelion flower with butterfly

In this post I want to share with you, first of all, this beautiful flower photo with butterfly and a few recipes to benefit of this flower and plant's medical power.

Dandelions as medicine

I hate drugs and I never use them if there is another alternative. I have used in the past years, with great success dandelion herbal tea for my lazy gallbladder.
The bitter compounds in the leaves and root help stimulate digestion and are mild laxatives.
These bitter principles also increase bile production in the gallbladder and bile flow from the liver and so help improve fat metabolism, including cholesterol, in the body. There are no side effects really but people with an obstruction of the bile ducts should not take dandelion.
Dandelion is also a rich source of vitamins and minerals. The leaves have a high content of vitamin A as well as moderate amounts of vitamin D, vitamin C, various B vitamins, iron, silicon, magnesium, zinc, and manganese.
In external uses the fresh juice of dandelion is applied externally to fight bacteria and help heal wounds. The plant has an antibacterial action. The latex contained in the plant sap can be used to remove corns and warts.

Dandelion recipe.

I know, we eat junk food these days and don't care about nature's gifts any more. This is the main reason we should try out some old fashion natural cures and recipes and do some house cleaning in our body, when spring comes.
1. Dandelion salad: the young leaves are less bitter, so leaves and flowers are eaten raw in salads. The dandelion is very nutritious, having more vitamins and minerals than most vegetables, it has a long history of use as a food in many countries.
2. Herbal Wine is made from fermented flowers and considered to be very flavorful and medicinal.
3. Dandelion herbal tea
- prepared from fresh plant: the best time to harvest the leaves to make dandelion tea is spring, before the flowers appear or late fall. The best plants to use for dandelion tea are young plants with broad leaves.
Use six dandelion leaves for one cup of tea, placed onto the bottom of the cup. Pour boiling water into the cup, and then leave it to stand for 5-10 minutes.
- from dried herb: if you have no possibilities to pick the fresh leaves yourself than you can prepare the tee from dried herb like bellow:
2 oz. of the dried herb or root in 1 quart of water, boiled for 30 min. Take all this in half a cup doses every 3 hours for stomach, kidney, gallbladder, and liver problems.
It is used as spring tonic.
Read about the symbolism of the dandelion in this previous post.
Keep it healthy!