This Kentucky Chef’s Favorite Spring Ingredient Is Hiding in Your Yard

The oft-maligned dandelion is one of the best things you can eat this season—especially with chef Ouita Michel’s hot bacon dressing.

The dandelion plant is rich in antioxidants; vitamins A, C, and K; and minerals including calcium, iron, and potassium. Walter Sturn/Unsplash

“People just get so mad at dandelions,” said Ouita Michel, laughing. Not her. Where others see a pesky weed, the Kentucky chef and restaurateur welcomes one of spring’s most exciting ingredients—one that goes lawn-to-table at her white-tablecloth Holly Hill Inn, the flagship of a culinary empire that spans six restaurants, a catering business, a cooking studio, and a bourbon bar.

Come spring, the cheery yellow flowers flood the lawn of the historic property. Freshly foraged, they join herbs and vegetables from the Inn’s six on-site gardens, along with other Kentucky-grown and -raised ingredients, on menus that champion local producers and regional food culture.

The entire dandelion plant is edible, from the blooms down to the roots. Michel first picks the young leaves, which she describes as “a little peppery, a little bit bitter. And it’s super tender.”

She tempers the bitterness with a hot bacon vinaigrette, a traditional Appalachian preparation that starts with sizzling bacon in a skillet and ends with pouring the smoky-tangy-sweet dressing directly over the greens. The hot dressing gently wilts the salad—or “kills” it, hence the old Appalachian name for the dish, “kilt salat.”

“My mother would make this all the time,” Michel said. “It’s super quick.” It also speaks to the resourcefulness of mountain cooks who didn’t have regular access to oil. They did the same with all manner of early spring greens, from foraged finds to the first garden lettuces, to welcome the new season after weeks of stored winter foods.

The entire dandelion plant is edible, from the blooms down to the roots. Alexandra_Velikoselskaja/Shutterstock

When the dandelion flowers bloom, but before they turn into fluffy seed heads, Michel picks them off their stems to pickle. She covers the flowers with a hot pickling solution made with vinegar, a bit of sugar and salt, and pickling spices, which causes them to close up into tight little buds. “We go through them so fast here that we don’t jar-pickle them; we just put them in the fridge,” Michel said. Two or three days later, her “dandelion capers” are ready to use.

For Michel, inspiration from the humble dandelion goes beyond the culinary. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she honored it with a tattoo.

“It’s a personal symbol of perseverance,” she said. “It’s very difficult to kill. It’s beautiful and it’s so cheerful; it’s got its pretty, bright yellow bloom, and then when it goes to seed, you get to make a wish.”

And, of course, it’s delicious to boot.

Ouita Michel’s Kilt Dandelion Salad

Serves 4

• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, or as needed
• 6 to 8 cups young dandelion greens, washed and dried

Put the chopped bacon pieces in a skillet and fry them. While they’re frying, add your onions. You want to fry till your bacon is pretty crispy.

In that same skillet, add the brown sugar, a little salt, pepper, and about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, depending on how much bacon fat you have—you want about the same amount of bacon fat and vinegar. Scrape it all up together, then pour that over your dandelion greens.

Toss well and serve right away.

Pick Your Own

You can buy dandelion greens (Michel recalled a chef once mistakenly doing so, not realizing she expected him to pick them from the lawn), but why pass up free food from your yard? Plus, Michel says the grocery-store greens are tougher and less flavorful.

Pick dandelions only from an unsprayed, untreated area, away from the side of the road (unless you like your salads seasoned with car exhaust). Harvest the greens in the spring, when the plants are easier to dig up and the leaves are young and tender. By summer, they’ll be too tough, but you can still pick the blooms.

Mix It Up

This hot bacon dressing goes well on all kinds of crisp spring lettuces, especially Bibb—a variety first grown in Frankfort, Kentucky, by statesman John B. Bibb in the mid-1800s. Michel’s mother often added chopped hard-boiled eggs and thinly sliced spring radishes to the mix.

Feed a Crowd

“If you like your bacon extra crispy, you can lay it out on a tray and cook in an oven,” Michel said. Gather the rendered grease into a skillet and proceed with the recipe, adding the bacon, crumbled, at the end.

On the Side

Michel likes to pair this slightly bitter salad with a rich meat, such as rabbit sausage, pâté, or a pan-fried pork chop.

Meet the Chef: Ouita Michel

Chef Ouita Michel. Talitha Schroeder

Hometown: Born in Thermopolis, Wyo., raised in Lexington, Ky.

Lives in: Midway, Ky., next door to Holly Hill Inn

Cooking Philosophy: I try to focus on expressing Kentucky—not just Kentucky’s past food culture, but what it is today and how vibrant it is. Food draws threads through time: It connects us to our past, it connects us today to one another, and it’ll be something that our children can pull forward in the future.

Comfort Food: Thanksgiving dinner comes pretty close; I make the same menu that my mother and grandmother made. But on a daily basis, probably red beans and rice.

Most Treasured Kitchen Tool: I have a small spatula with a plastic handle that was in my mom’s kitchen from when I was a very small child. When she passed, I found it in the drawer. I still use it virtually every day. It’s got burn marks and everything.

Ingredient More Home Cooks Should Use: Growing your own little pots of fresh herbs is one of the best things you can do for your meals. They’re super healthy as well.

Best Entertaining Advice: Make yourself available to your guests; that’s the most important thing. And don’t be afraid to make a sour cream and onion dip.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.