i am really a friend of harvesting eatable things in the wild. and it makes me even more happy, if weeds become food, like dandelion. we have million dandelions on our lawn and if you cut the meadow from time to time, you will have young and tender dandelion leaves for almost the whole year. but always take only the smallest leaves, they are better.
but be warned if you don´t like radicchio or endive because dandelion has a bitter taste. if this is the case, try some bought dandelion as is less bitter than it´s “wild” equivalent. and if you really hate these bitter lettuces, just replace the dandelion by rucola, this will make it as well.

the idea of this salad is from the ZEIT magazin. they have a very nice column called weekly market.

one bunch of dandelion
thinly sliced bacon
two eggs
olive oil
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper

wash the dandelion leaves carefully and drain in a salad spinner. fry the bacon in a very hot pan and heat a large pot of water to poach the eggs. to poach your eggs there are two options. the classical way of poaching is to add vinegar and salt to the cooking water and slide the eggs into the boiling vinegar-water. in theory the eggs will poach without tattering or other ugly accidents. i have never been successful in doing so. that´s why i am voting for the second option. just heat the water in the jar, prepare a small bowl and put in a 20 cm by 20 cm piece of clingfilm. break one egg and put it into the bowl with the clingfilm, twist together the clingfilm, so that the egg can´t leak and put it into the boiling water for 3 minutes. repeat with the second egg.

meanwhile, combine the olive oil, juice of one lemon, salt and pepper to a dressing. mix the dandelion with the dressing. arrange the dandelion on two plates and place the fried bacon on the top of the salad. finally unwrap the poached eggs and place them on the plates as well. serve with salt and freshly ground pepper.