Dandelion Root Coffee (Roasted)

A caffeine-free coffee from the dandelions in the lawn: the roots dug in autumn, scrubbed, chopped, dried, roasted dark, ground and simmered. It tastes like its cousin chicory: dark, bittersweet and earthy. Susanna Moodie published the method in 1852 from her backwoods farm in Upper Canada, and it has hardly changed.

Dig only in your own yard or with permission, where no weedkiller, lawn treatment or dogs have been, and away from roads. Digging plants is not allowed on Michigan state land.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Dandelion Root Coffee page.

Ingredients

• About 450 g (1 pound) fresh dandelion roots, dug in September or October
• 2 tablespoons roasted, ground dandelion root per 2 cups (475 ml) water, to brew
• Milk, honey or sugar to taste

Directions

1. Dig the roots in late summer or autumn, before the ground freezes, when they are fullest; spring roots are thin and weak. Water the patch the day before and lever each root out with a dandelion digger or garden fork.
2. Cut off the leaves and scrub the roots well under running water with a stiff brush. Do not peel them: the brown skin carries much of the flavour.
3. Chop the roots into pieces about the size of a bean, ½ inch (1 cm).
4. Dry them: spread in one layer on a baking sheet in a 250 °F (120 °C) oven, or in a dehydrator, until brittle, 1 to 2 hours. They will lose more than half their weight.
5. Roast the dried pieces at 350 °F (175 °C), stirring every 10 minutes, until dark brown right through and smelling of coffee and caramel, 15 to 30 minutes. Do not let them blacken.
6. Cool completely, then grind coarsely in a coffee or spice grinder. Store airtight.
7. To brew, simmer 2 tablespoons of ground root in 2 cups of water for 10 to 20 minutes, then strain. Add milk and sweetener to taste.

Notes

Correction (2026-10-06) The first version of this recipe said to dig in early spring or autumn. Spring is the worst time: Dragendorff (1870, quoted in King’s American Dispensatory) found 24% inulin in October roots against 1.74% in March, and Moodie found spring roots “weak, and destitute of the fine bitter flavour”. It now says autumn, and adds a drying step before roasting. Where this comes from Susanna Moodie, Roughing It in the Bush (1852): roots dug in the fall, washed without removing “the fine brown skin”, cut “the size of a kidney-bean” and roasted in an iron pan “until they were as brown and crisp as coffee”; dried cut roots “will keep for years”. The drying and roasting temperatures are the ones foraging writers commonly give; there is no tested standard. The USDA’s American Root Drugs (1907) notes dried roots weigh less than half as much as fresh. Michigan state land Mich. Admin. Code R 299.922(h) forbids removing vegetation from state land except mushrooms, berries, fruit and nuts for personal use, and the DNR bars plants killed in harvest from public land. Dig at home or on private land with permission. Safety The European Medicines Agency lists allergy to the daisy family, gallstones, bile-duct or liver disease and active peptic ulcer as reasons not to take dandelion root, and warns about potassium in kidney failure, diabetes and heart failure. Ask a doctor if you take diuretics, lithium, quinolone antibiotics, diabetes drugs or blood thinners. Identification One yellow flower on each hollow, unbranched stem; smooth, deeply toothed leaves in a rosette; milky sap. Hairy cat’s ear has hairy leaves and branched stems. Mixing Half dandelion and half roasted chicory, or a little real coffee, makes a fuller cup. The photo A bag of packaged roasted dandelion root coffee.