Cooking with flowers means bouquets so good you can eat added to your meals. Edible flowers add a lot of beauty and flavour to any recipe. Using edible flowers are easy to incorporate into your favourite dishes such as soups, desserts, and even your main savoury dishes. Edible flowers can be pretty tasty treats.
Of course not all flowers are edible but there are a great many that are and they do make lovely additions to your cooking adding a decorative flair and taste. Soups are especially beautiful when there is an edible flower floating on top. Flowers are not just pretty but they do add nutrients to the food besides flavours. The next time you are planning a special meal remember to buy the edible flowers along with the ingredients to your recipes.
The best flowers to use are the ones that have been grown without the use of pesticides. Let your florist know you are planning to use the flowers in your recipes and ask for their guidance. Be sure to clean these flowers thoroughly before using them like you would with any vegetable.
As a general rule for dishes that are sweet try using violets, citrus or apple blossoms and carnation petals. Main dishes do well with broccoli florets and herbs. Vegetables that have edible flowers are arugula, okra, broccoli, fennel, and the male squash flowers. The flowers of the arugula have a nutty taste like horseradish. The whole fennel plant is edible and the flowers taste like aniseed which goes well with salmon.
To add freshness to any of your recipes you can always add in herbal flowers. The leaves of the herbs produce edible flowers like dill, dandelion, basil, lavender, rosemary, mint, thyme, chives and sage. The flowers of the herbs can be preserved in oil for cooking and the lavender makes a sugar that is an amazing sweetener for cookies, jelly and tea. Rosemary has tiny buds that work really well in meat dishes or salads. The flowers of the dill go well in omelets while the buttery flavour and look of the dandelion flowers have a peppery kick to them once eaten. The flowers of the chive are a crunchy addition to salads and the flavour is that of a mild onion.
Edible flowers form the ornamental flower group are calendula, day lilies, pansies, hollyhock, impatiens, nasturtiums, violets, Bergamot, chamomile, tulips, scented geraniums and violas. These are all wonderful for cooking but the day lilies do have a laxative effect so caution needs to be taken.
The flowers of hollyhocks can be crystallized for using in desserts or garnish. Savoury dishes like omelettes, breads, souffls, and rice all go well with calendula. Guacamole and cheese is a good paring for the sweet and peppery flavour of the nasturtiums. If you like asparagus then you will enjoy using daylilies in your stir-fry or soup dishes.
Shrubs and trees also have edible flowers and they are the blossoms from the lilac, plum, peach, pear, and apple trees. Crystallized rose petals make wonderful jams and jellies. Wedding cakes are easily made quite spectacular by adding edible flowers for the decorations. Always buy your edible flowers from a florist that you can trust and ask for their advice in cooking with the flowers you choose.
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Adam Fowler's team at ModeFlowers.com is dedicated to providing service of the highest quality to all their customers. Visit ModeFlowers.com today!
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