# The dandelion salad > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The dandelion salad," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-dandelion-salad/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The meal John Kiriakou assembled in the yard at FCI Loretto from foraged dandelions, commissary olive oil and sea salt, instant rice, a bouillon cube, peanuts, borrowed Sazón and a bag of chicken, which he calls the single most satisfying meal of his twenty-three months in prison.* - **Place:** The yard at FCI Loretto - **Origin of the idea:** Khaled, an Iraqi Kurd imam foraging in the grass - **Foraged:** A bag of dandelions - **Bought at commissary:** Olive oil, sea salt, instant rice, bouillon cube, peanuts, a bag of chicken - **Borrowed:** Sazón, from one of the Mexicans - **Verdict:** "The single most satisfying meal I ever had in 23 months in prison" **The dandelion salad** is the meal [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) made for himself in the yard at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto), and the last entry on his list of [the best meals he ever ate](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-best-meal-overseas), offered with the acknowledgement that it does not belong on such a list. *"And then crazy as it sounds one of the best meals I ever had I made myself in prison."*[1] ## Khaled The idea came from another prisoner. *"There was an Iraqi Kurd in prison with me. He was an Imam of a mosque in upstate New York and this guy was innocent innocent innocent. They set him up on a terrorism charge, and then when he finally finished prison, they expelled him back to Iraq. It was awful."*[1][2] Kiriakou found him walking the grass. *"Anyway, he was just kind of wandering around the yard one day, and I said, 'Khaled, I said, what are you doing?' Just wan- winding around, you know, the the grass. He said, 'I'm I'm looking for uh for um dandelions.' And I said, 'For what reason?' And he said, 'To eat them.'"*[2] The answer landed on a Greek. *"And I was like, 'What a great idea! We make dandelion salad in Greece. We make dandelion jam, all different kinds of things.'"* He asked permission to pick at the far end of the yard, and got it.[2][3] ## The assembly Kiriakou is specific about the washing and about why it mattered: *"You got to wash it cuz people are like spitting all the time or animals are peeing or pooping or whatever."*[3] The rest came from the commissary and from neighbours. *"So, I picked an entire bag full of dandelions. And then I went to the commissary and bought a bottle a bottle of olive oil and some sea salt. And then I I had some instant rice with a chicken bouillon cube. And I threw in some peanuts to give it a little bit of crunch and some Sazón uh spice that the one of the Mexicans gave me."*[3][4] One ingredient carries an explanation about the institution rather than the recipe: *"Uh I had a bag of chicken. They sold bags of chicken there, not cans cuz you could make a make a shank out of the can and, you know, slash somebody with it. So, bags of chicken."*[4] ## The verdict *"I put it all together, and then I had my dandelion salad. It was the single most satisfying meal I ever had in 23 months in prison."*[4][5] Kiriakou's own gloss on that judgement is two words long, and he supplies it himself: *"Sad, but true."*[5] ## See also - [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) - [The prison food economy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/prison-food-economy) - [The best meal overseas](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-best-meal-overseas) - [The Islamabad guest house](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-islamabad-guest-house) ## Sources 1. Iran Escalation, Captured Spies: What Really Happens? And More I Going Deeper w/JK - DEEP FOCUS (2026-03-03), at 35:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_p0sXfdMU&t=2155s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-the-deep-focus-iran-escalation-captured-spies-what-really-happens/ 2. Iran Escalation, Captured Spies: What Really Happens? And More I Going Deeper w/JK - DEEP FOCUS (2026-03-03), at 36:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_p0sXfdMU&t=2186s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-the-deep-focus-iran-escalation-captured-spies-what-really-happens/ 3. Iran Escalation, Captured Spies: What Really Happens? And More I Going Deeper w/JK - DEEP FOCUS (2026-03-03), at 36:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_p0sXfdMU&t=2216s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-the-deep-focus-iran-escalation-captured-spies-what-really-happens/ 4. Iran Escalation, Captured Spies: What Really Happens? And More I Going Deeper w/JK - DEEP FOCUS (2026-03-03), at 37:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_p0sXfdMU&t=2249s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-the-deep-focus-iran-escalation-captured-spies-what-really-happens/ 5. Iran Escalation, Captured Spies: What Really Happens? And More I Going Deeper w/JK - DEEP FOCUS (2026-03-03), at 37:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_p0sXfdMU&t=2279s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-03-the-deep-focus-iran-escalation-captured-spies-what-really-happens/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-dandelion-salad/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt