Sweet, runny and blossomy, this dandelion honey is the perfect bee friendly vegan substitute for honey. If I hadn’t made it myself I wouldn’t believe it’s not honey, it tastes and feels like the real thing!
Dandelions – Weeds or Wildflowers?
“A weed is but an unloved flower.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Dandelions are considered weeds in the UK, often seen as the nemesis to those that want a perfectly green grass lawn. But dandelions have been used by humans for food for centuries and appreciated by many cultures for their medicinal benefits.
A dandelion is not just one plant, but several different species of the genus Taraxacum. The most common are T. officinale and T. erythrospermum and they spread across the world from Europe.
A dandelion is easily to recognise with it’s bright yellow many petaled flowers. Its leaves form around the base, and often have a toothed leaves. There are several similar plants with similar flowerheads in the daisy family Asteraceae, sometimes known as false dandelions, so learn how to distinguish these.
The leaf shape is what gives the dandelion it’s name – from the French dent de lion, literally meaning lion’s tooth. In German the plant is also known as Löwenzahn.
After they have flowered the plants turn into beautiful seed heads, often called clocks. Who remembers ‘telling the time’ as a child by blowing the seeds?
Eating Dandelions
Every part of the dandelion plant is edible. As always, with foraging be 100 percent sure that what you are gathering is correctly identified and safe to eat. You can use the young leaves in salads and dry them to make tea. The long tap root can be dried, roasted and ground – it tastes surprising like coffee! Some people can have an allergic reaction to the pollen of dandelion, so take care. The flowers can be used to make dandelion wine. What we love to do most with the dandelion flowers, is to make this amazing vegan dandelion honey!
So let’s get picking our flowers to make our vegan honey. Just leave some dandelions for the bees too 🙂
Picking Dandelion Flowers
The best place to pick your dandelion flowers is a lawn or field away from roads and dog walkers. Also take care not to pick anywhere that may have recently been sprayed with pesticides. The flowers open during the day and close during the night. You want to pick the fully open flowers, that still look nice and fresh. For our vegan honey recipe, pick just the flower heads without any stalk.
The perfect vegan substitute for honey
Before I became vegan I didn’t know much about honey production and like many others I thought that buying honey was actually friendly to bees. I knew that vegans didn’t eat honey, but I didn’t really know the details why.
Read our post about why honey isn’t vegan.
Made with foraged dandelion flowers, our vegan honey is so simple to make and tastes just like the real thing. All you need is fresh dandelion flowers, organic sugar, a lemon and water. That’s it! Unlike other vegan honey alternatives such as golden syrup, agave syrup, date syrup, our vegan dandelion honey could make anyone believe it’s actually honey! The dandelion flowers gives this vegan honey substitute a rich floral taste.
Vegan Dandelion Honey
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh dandelion flowerheads, densely packed
- 2 slices lemon
- 1.5 cups water
- about 1.5 cups organic sugar
Instructions
- Shake or blow the flowers to remove any bugs
- Place the water, lemon slices and dandelion flowers in a saucepan
- Simmer with a lid on for 15 minutes
- Leave this to cool and infuse overnight
- The next day, strain out the flowers and lemon by pouring the liquid through a strainer or muslin cloth. Press down to make sure you get all of that dandelion juice out!
- Weigh the liquid, and then weigh out the same amount sugar.
- Put the liquid back in the pan and add the sugar. Stir and heat gently at first until the sugar is dissolved. Then bring it up to a gentle boil for approximately 15 minutes. See the notes for tips on knowing when it's ready.
- Pour into clean sterilised jars and put the lids on while it's still hot
Notes
1:1 Liquid to Sugar Ratio
Ideally you want to weigh the amount of liquid that you have and use the same amount of sugar. We don’t always have a scales to hand, so we use the cup measurements as above, and just use our judgement. As the amount of liquid you have left over after infusing the dandelions can vary, the sugar amount can vary, and so can the amount of time you need to boil the liquid. If you have ever made jam, it is a similar process.How to know when it has reached the right consistency
You will see that the liquid will darken and start to thicken. Test it regularly on a cold plate, or see how it clings onto a metal spoon. It will thicken more as it cools, so aim to turn it off before it reaches your desired texture. I prefer to stick to the more runny consistency. If you cook it for too long you risk that it gets overly thick and caramelises. If you change the batch size, the time needed to boil and thicken will vary. Just like real honey, this can also crystallise. But it’s still good to eat.Picking dandelions
Always pick your dandelion flowers from a plentiful, clean and pesticide free place. Dandelions are an early nectar source for pollinators, so make sure to leave plenty behind for the bees and their friends!Troubleshooting
I haven’t weighed the liquid
You can just use the measurements given in the recipe instead! In this case, however, cooking time until you reach the right consistency can vary. It might take a bit longer, or less long until you are done. Make sure to test the consistency as described above!I’ve added the sugar from the beginning
No worries! Nothing’s lost. Here’s what you can do: Instead of boiling for 15 minutes with the flowers at the beginning, just gently heat up until the sugar is dissolved, then leave to infuse overnight. To continue, strain the liquid as normal through a sieve, and the dissolved sugar stays in the liquid. Then heat up in a saucepan and simmer until the right consistency is reached (see tips above).My honey has crystallised
You have probably boiled off too much of the liquid or added more sugar than required, and the honey crystallised as it cooled down. Crystallisation can also happen when the vegan honey is stored for a longer amount of time.Nutrition
We hope you like this dandelion honey as much as we do! You should totally try it on our Super Seedy Sourdough Bread We really love foraging so you can find lots more wild food recipes and tips here:
Sophie and Paul
Is there an expiration date for this honey? How long would it typically last?
Hi Adrienne, As long as you clean and sterilise your jars and utensils well, unopened jars should keep for months or longer, like jam does.
Do you store at room temp or does it have to be refrigerated?
Hi Jellybean,
it keeps well at room temperature. We’re still eating last year’s, and it shows no sign whatsoever of going bad 🙂
Enjoy!
Sophie & Paul
Weird question – we’ve picked our dandelions but we don’t have any lemons. Will limes do?
Hi Nico, We’ve not tried it, but it should work. Another reader used oranges too. Have fun! Sophie
Tastes amazing! However mine turned to a sort of jelly consistency after cooling! Followed directions except that I left it ‘infusing’ for almost two days by accident! Could that be why? And would it still be okay to eat? I am not at all familiar with this sort of thing so any input is much appreciated!! 🙂
Hi Bean,
thank you for your rating and comment! 🙂
The jelly consistency might indeed come from the extra infusing time, as more pectin could have been extracted from the lemons. No worries though! still absolutely fine to eat, just a bit like marmelade! Glad you like it!
All the best, Paul
Thanks so much Paul! I just gave it a good stir and it went back to normal consistency for a while, but I think I’ll just leave it as a jelly! So yummy and fun to make 🙂
Do you only use the petals from the head, or do you leave any of the green base of the head on too when you boil? Thanks!
Hi Duncan, we use the whole head, including the green base, but not the stem. Some recipes use just the petals, but when we tried it didn’t make a noticeable difference, and it’s much quicker. 🙂
Hey!
Is it possible to use alternitives for sugar, like agave or maple syrup or coconut sugar? And what about the amounts if I would use these?
Hey Sarah 🙂 We’ve not tried with sugar alternatives. I would try with agave syrup, as I think maple or coconut sugar might over power the dandelion flavour. Without testing it myself I’m not sure on amounts, so maybe try experimenting with a smaller batch? Let us know how you get on! Sophie
I will try stevia and see what happens.
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!
Stevia behaves quite differently from sugar, so you might find it does not thicken up, but interesting to find out 🙂
Hi. I was wondering how you got on! I wanted to try this with maple syrup perhaps!? Thanks
Hi Richard,
maple syrup is already of the viscose consistency that you want in the end. We suggest using as little water as you can for the flower infusion, but it will take quite a while longer to get back to syrup consistency!
Another way could be to try infusing the flowers directly in syrup with just some of the water. That gets you there faster, but without testing we can’t know how intense the flowery flavour would be.
Worth a try! Good luck and let us know how it turned out 🙂
Paul
Made this recipe and it tastes delicious, highly recommended
Thanks so much for your recommendation Wendy! Glad you loved it 🙂
Should I warm or cold rinse or thouroughly wash the dandelions before cooking them or will any bacteria, dirt and microorganisms be boiled out of it?
Thanks for your help! Looking forward to making this while I’m quarantined at home.
Hi Kelly,
We just shake or blow the dirt and little bugs out of the flowers, and they get sterilised by boiling. Rinsing them before might wash out some of the pollen as well, but we want it in the vegan honey 🙂
Hope you have fun making it! Lots of love <3 Sophie and Paul
Thank you so much for your reply! I’ll let you know how it comes out after I make it!
Yay! Good luck, we’ve had so many lovely pics and messages from readers who’ve made it this week, so hopefully it turns out well for you too Kelly 🙂
Hello. I love the idea of making dandelion honey, it tastes beautiful but my first attempt has come out really like liquid! What can I do to thicken it up?? Many thanks
Hi Sophie,
Here’s what you can do: put it back in the saucepan, and simmer it a bit longer to thicken up a bit more.
Every few minutes you can test the consistency by putting a little bit of it on a cold (refridgerated) saucer. That helps it cool down quickly and you can see what it’s like when cooled down. It’s all about finding that sweet spot of honey consistency.
It can be tricky to get it just right, and if you simmer just a little too long the vegan honey can quickly crystallise when it cools down, which happened to us a lot at first. So being more cautious and keeping it on the liquid side is the safer way to go 🙂
If it does get too thick or completely crystallises in the jar, add enough boiling water to dissolve any chrystals, transfer it back to the sauce pan and repeat. It is a bit of a feeling thing, but eventually you’ll get it right 🙂
Good luck, Paul
Making this for the first time, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Hope it turns out well for you Eileen. The most tricky part is getting the set right. Test it regularly on a cold saucer to see how set it is and be careful not to over cook it. Enjoy!
For some reason, my liquid reduced a lot but didn’t really thicken. I cooked it for ages!I used coconut sugar. Wast that the reason?
Hi Maggie, We haven’t tried this recipe with coconut sugar, but it was most likely the reason. Coconut sugar is less dense and doesn’t thicken in the same way.You could try cooking it again with some apple (which contains the naturally thickening pectin) which might help it thicken.
If you made a different sized batch then it can also take longer to reduce and thicken. For best results we recommend weighing the remaining dandelion liquid, and using the same weight of caster sugar.
Have a nice day,
Sophie 🙂
I look forward to making this, but be aware that bees rely on dandelions as one of the few flowers available in early spring so please leave some for the bees.
Hi Hugh, yes absolutely we always recommend picking in moderation when foraging. We’ve added a note to the recipe to remind people to leave plenty for the bees and other pollinators 🙂 Enjoy making it, Sophie
This is fantastic! Even tho I did it wrong..I added the sugar at the beginning because who needs to read the instructions?? …..despite the hiccup it turned out beautifully…really impressed, smells and tastes just like honey. Thanks for the recipe.
Oops 🙂 So glad it worked out well anyway! Thanks for your lovely feedback Jo, we’re so happy to share recipes with you. Sophie
I did the same, added sugar at the beginning cos I didn’t read the recipe properly but it worked!!! The only negative is the smell when cooking 🙊. Thankfully the end result is perfect and made me feel I had actually used one of nature’s free gifts!
Glad it turned out well for you too Heather! Isn’t it wonderful cooking with nature’s bounty. Have you ever tried nettles? Our nettle soup is the perfect place to start! We are so looking forward to Elderflower season next. Sophie 🙂
Did you strain off the dandelion off after the boiling of the honey ? I’ve made the same mistake and added the sugar straight away
Hi Joanne,
I’m not sure water the others did, but I would recommend straining before boiling the honey (after you have soaked the flowers overnight). Hope it works out for you. Sophie
Do we cool with the lid on or let it cool first then put the jar lid on?
Hi Lisa, put the lid on straight away after you fill the jars, this way the jar seals as it cools and will preserve better.
My kids are making this right now =) Any suggestions on what I can use the strained flower heads for? I hate mass waste.
That’s lovely to hear Leighanne! You can use the strained out flowers to make tea afterwards, or I have wondered about using them to make chia jam.
Hello, I put a cup full of the cooked dandelion heads into a loaf of bread I was making at the time, and The bread turned green when it was cooked. We nicknamed it ‘Hulk’ bread. I put the rest into some lentil stew, we couldn’t really taste them but we could see the flower heads in the stew amongst the other ingredients so it looked interesting and it was nice to know they weren’t going to waste.
That’s awesome Anna! Love that you made the most of the leftover flowers. Just imagining your Hulk bread, hehehe!:D
They’re great in compost!
I’ve just made this and was really impressed with the taste. So nice to make something from the weeds in my garden!
Thanks so much for your lovely feedback Karen! Have you tried cooking with nettles? They are another ‘weed’ that’s super nutritious and useful. 🙂
I have made this yesterday and it turned out delicious, though still really runny after nearly an hour of boiling (I made 3 times the amount the recipe says). Very tasty though and tasted great on my breakfast crumpets this morning:)
Hi Lenka, So glad you enjoyed it. Yes when you make larger batches the boiling takes much longer, testing it regularly on a cold saucer can help you to get the set that you prefer. On crumpets sounds delicious! Thanks for your comment 🙂 Sophie
Are you really a vegan on lockdown if you haven’t made this recipe at least once this month?
Absolutely fabulous, so simple, and I can’t believe how much it tastes like honey!
Haha totally! So glad you enjoyed it Jess.
This dandelion honey is amazing! When I first made it I thought it was delicious but a little thin, then I put it in the fridge and it thickened up perfectly! Absolutely delicious!! Thanks so much for this recipe. I would highly recommend it!
Thanks so much Lisa!
Hello, I was just about to make this but found out I only have lemon juice can i use that instead?
Hi Miley, Yes that should work. I’d use one teaspoon of juice to replace the two slices of lemon. Have fun making it! Sophie 🙂
Do you think this would work with chamomile or chrysanthemum flower buds?
Hey Lisa, We have made this recipe with other edible flowers. The taste will vary, but the process should be the same. You may find you want to adjust the quantity of the flowers depending on what you use. Have fun experimenting!
Can you freeze the dandelions until use? I need to ask my neighbors if I can pick theirs, I only have a cup.
Hi Rhea,
We haven’t tried it, but another reader successfully used dandelions they had frozen. So hopefully it should work for you too! Enjoy, Sophie 🙂
I accidentally added the sugar on the first step! Will this still work?
It sounds lovely so I’m really hoping it does!
Hi Jasmine,
here’s what you can try and it should work (we have had other people with the same problem who reported they did this):
Just gently heat up the liquid with the flowers, sugar and lemon instead of boiling for 15 minutes, make sure the sugar is dissolved, then let soak and infuse overnight. On the next day, strain (the sugar stays dissolved in the liquid) and continue with the second boiling. We hope you get a good result. Let us know how it turned out! 🙂
All the best,
Paul
Tried this today, lovely, thank you for the recipe, I dropped one of the jars i was filling onto my polenta bake that was cooling on the side, not to be disheartened I invented Yeast flake polenta with dandilion honey glazed 😀
Whoops, love your accidental culinary alchemy! Glad you enjoyed the recipe Kim.
I plan to try this.
I put a link to this page on my Facebook wall and I added the comment about being aware of the need to leave some for pollinators right next to the link and added a bit about dandelions being very important to bumblebees just coming out of hibernation. I’m studying conservation so this is important for me and actually important for all of us.
I would like to know if anyone with hay fever has tried it., please?
Hello, can I use organic coconut sugar?
Hi Monika, We haven’t tried it, but another reader tried using coconut sugar and it didn’t thicken up so well. It should still be delicious, just more on the syrupy side. Adding some very finely diced apple for the pectin it contains may help to thicken it up. Hope that helps, Sophie
Hello! Finished making this today and I have to say it was fantastic! Made a few jars more than I meant to though, but that means gifts for people after lockdown! Thanks you guys for the recipe
So happy to hear that Moya 🙂 You are very welcome, thank you for using our recipe!
Hi, I’m going to try this with my daughter tomorrow. What kind of sugar should I use, caster or granulated? Thank you 🙂
Hi Steph, Either caster or granulated works fine! Enjoy 🙂
Thank you 😊
hi I just made my 1st batch..Delicious & very simple..Thank you!!
Wonderful! So happy you liked it Sharon.
Hi ,have made 2 batches of honey now,and I boiled it gently for 1.5 hrs in the end and it still was not very thick ,quite runny in fact.Is this correct? It does taste like honey and my husband takes it in his cider vinegar in the morning instead of bee honey as he says it is more palatable. Dandelion cake next.
Hi Diane, glad you enjoy the taste! The consistency should be like runny honey, not like set honey. If you increase the batch size then thickening process will take much longer. Testing a spoonful regularly on cold saucer from the freezer can help you to know when the consistency is to your liking. Another important thing to note, make sure not to cover the pan with a lid whilst it’s boiling – the liquid needs to be able to evaporate. Hope that helps! Sophie
I made this today totally amazing how can something that isn’t honey taste just like honey thank you so much for the recipe
Made this yesterday and it is absolutely delicious!
Picked all the dandelions on a daily walk with my daughter and she loved helping out.
It tastes just like normal honey and was approved by my 2 year old 🙂
Thank you for the *****, Keira!
It’s a fun thing for children, our niece and nephew loved it too! Especially the collecting of the dandelions…
Glad you and your family are enjoying your homemade vegan dandelion honey! 🙂
And keep up the great work, fellow blogger! We absolutely love Lake Garda 😍
Love, Paul & Sophie
Hello. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. My honey tastes fantastic but hasn’t thickened much. It will be great as a drizzle and in tea or hot water but i expected it to be thicker. Did i do domething wrong? Wishing you all the very best! X
Hi Sallyann,
thank you for your kind words! We are so glad you like the taste of your homemade vegan honey 🙂
The consistency should eventually be at least as thick as maple syrup. It much depends on how long you boil it for, to evaporate enough liquid. You could try returning it to a saucepan and boiling it again for a little longer, and see if it thickens up any more. Especially when doing larger batches, simmering time increases by a lot! Also, don’t put a lid on the pan. You can do this test with a small amount first to see if it works. Give it a try! 🙂
One thing to keep in mind is that the honey will never be like set honey, but of syrup consistency.
Wishing you all the best as well!
Take care, Paul
I made this but it hasnt thicked up. I weighed sugar and used same amount as the liquid.
Hi Isobel,
sorry that it didn’t work out for you. Here are a few thoughts:
Did you by any chance do a bigger batch? Did you try boiling for a bit longer? Eventually, as more water evaporates, the vegan honey would thicken up as the sugar concentration increases. You could still return it to a saucepan and continue to gently boil off more liquid and see if it gets thicker. Try with a small amount first, as a quick test.
Hope you find this helpful and will try to still turn this around 🙂
Best wishes, Paul
We have an allotment with more than our fair share of dandelions and we were looking for ways to use them. Came upon this recipe and WOW….absolutely brilliant, I made a jar of plain which is spot on and a jar of lavender infused but it’s very thick which is because I boiled it again to infused with the lavender, lesson learnt….don’t over boil!! Perfect measurements as in sugar to liquid ratio which worked fine for me. Have a go it’s easy and very tasty, just picked another crop to make another couple of jars. Thanks for this great recipe 😋😀 x
Thanks so much Kate. My old allotment used to love growing lots of dandelions too! If only I knew how to make this back then. We also use the smaller, more young leaves in salads. Another cool thing that you do with dandelions (but we’ve not tried yet) is to dry and roast the roots and use it as a coffee substitute!
They are simmering right now, and it smells good! But question…..”leave to cool and infuse overnight.” In the fridge or on the counter? Thanks! I can’t wait to try this!!
Hi Suzy, just on the counter is fine 🙂
Love, Sophie & Paul
This was so much fun to make! I put the heads into a larger-holed colander and gently shook the ants out over the sink. Then I inspected to make sure there were no stragglers. The honey cooked up nicely and the jar sealed with a very decisive POP! I’m glad to know it’ll be shelf stable for a while. I do see some foam on top (like you can get with jelly). Should I have skimmed before sealing? Or is this something other than foam? I can’t wait to make more. In our cold Wisconsin winters, I often drink hot water, lemon juice, honey, and cayenne pepper to ease a cold or sore throat. This is going to be perfect!
So glad you enjoyed it Suzy! We haven’t had foam forming on ours. Foam comes from air bubbles trapped in the top layer. Keep the boiling gentle, and give a good stir before jarring can help to reduce it. If you make more and it happens again, I’d skim it like you do with jelly. It may reduce the shelf life a bit, but it’s still good to eat! Enjoy
Hi I would prefer to buy dried Dandelion flowers opposed to picking wild ones. Would dried flowers work as well? If so, are the measurements the same?
Hi Rissa, Without testing it ourselves, I’m not sure how well dried flowers will work. When using dried herbs instead of fresh you typically use a third to a half the amount of fresh, so if I was to experiment I’d start off by trying the recipe using half the amount of dried flowers. Do let us know if you try it! 🙂
It tastes just like honey! But does it have to be thick on while boiling or when cooled? Over all it’s a great recipe and I’ll for sure make it again<3
Hi Aimee,
thanks for your comment! It is more liquid when hot, and thickens up when cooled. You can test this on a cold plate that was put in the freezer, to see if it’s ready to come off the heat. Glad you’ll be coming back to this!
Best wishes, Paul
I made this!
Truly delicious, but mine turned out very dark. I don’t mind, because it is so nice.
Next batch will not simmer for so long. (I have an AGA, so it does not matter how long things cook for.)
Hi Alan, glad it turned out delicious!
A dark colour could come from caramelisation, or if you used brown sugar. As long as it’s delicious, it doesn’t do any harm though 🙂
Enjoy, Paul