Adding beautiful edible flowers to recipes to showcase their unique flavors and beauty, has become my inspiration to grow them too! Don’t miss my candied edible flower ‘how to’ below!
A Great Way To Experiment With Edible Flower Recipes Is To Start With A Home Garden
Having grown up in a Mediterranean influenced home, rose water was in many of our dessert recipes. Never gave much thought to the fact I was actually eating roses, or their essence.
So of course when I had a home of my own I planted a rose bush and began creating so many recipes and ways to use the rose petals, including making my own rose water!
The enjoyment that was derived from growing my own, and creating recipes with their heavenly flavor, quickly branched out into other flowers as well.
Who Knew Flowers Could Bring So Much Joy In Winter
In the dead of winter, when I was in need of spring inspiration, I’d buy small tea rose plants to keep in my kitchen window, sometimes a seed packet or two to grow colorful sweet pea blossoms.
Nasturtium flowers, surprisingly, grew fast in tiny little pots which provided both the delicious radish tasting flowers and leaves.
The nasturtium leaves, when finely chopped just like spinach, made a delicious bread imparting a slight flavor of peppery radishes.
By spring, my passion to grow edible flowers was in full bloom, which has expanded my style of cooking most colorfully!
My Own Garden and Favorite Edible Flowers
Different flowering plants open the path to a delicious journey of both sweet and savory recipes using edible flowers, if only for the burst of color alone. And let’s not forget colorful cocktails too!
The first time I encountered edible blossoms, was while working a catering party many years ago, where the blossoms were being placed on a spring salad for 250 people, in which we all laughed knowing the guys were not going to eat the flowers! We were right.
Several years later, those same colorful petals were showing up on cheese plates, still being pushed to the side.
Now, many years later, I have become aware of medicinal benefits in many blossoms, just as there are in a variety of fresh herbs; in many ways I’ve come to think of flowers as herbs.
Be it outdoors in the summer months or in a sunny room indoors in the dead of winter, I now grow a variety of edible blossoms.
I’m So Excited To Share My Favorite Edible Flowers With You
If for no other reason than the gorgeous colors fresh flowers bring to culinary creativity, edible flower recipes are so worth elevating the excitement of a home cook.
While the culinary potential of delicate petals is not new, especially in Italian cuisine in which the squash blossoms have been served in a variety of ways for a very long time, I have found great joy in exploring so many other edible flowers.
From the large zucchini blossom or pumpkin blossom to the little flowers we often think of as weeds, such as dandelions, I have so many favorite recipes I want to share with you.
Whether I am using the blossoms to elevate beautiful photography for the recipes on my blog, or simply elevating a birthday cake for one of my sisters, it’s a good idea, if not cost effective alone, to grow any edible flowers you can, both indoors or outside on a deck or the ground.
Let’s get started!
Edible Lavender Recipes
Alongside of my rose bush I planted several English lavender plants, just to try my hand at them. Wow, did they smell heavenly and were probably the flower I enjoyed growing first that inspired my taste buds to experiment with lots of culinary options.
- Lavender Garden Butter Cookies – Infused with both lavender salt and lavender sugar for the perfect summer shortbread cookie.
- Lavender Popsicles – Lavender and blueberry frozen popsicles with almond milk sweetened with bee’s honey that drink from these edible flowers.
- Lavender and Lemon Juice Poppy Seed Muffins – The freshness of lemons and the nutty flavor of poppy seeds for a summertime muffin.
- Herbs de Provence Spice Blend – A classic blend that is so easy to make, especially if you grow your own or support your local farmers markets.
The Best Cherry Blossom Cocktail For Spring
This cherry blossom cocktail recipe, with cherry blossom honey, Sake and Prosecco, is the perfect signature drink for spring brides or Mother’s Day, when cherry blossoms are in full bloom.
It all started one early spring day when my neighbor’s driveway suddenly became a cloud of pink cherry blossoms, that I was inspired to create this cocktail.
Many cocktails call for simple syrups and so I thought why not create one by simmering the freshly picked sweet blossoms with a little sugar and water.
While the simple syrup cooled, I went ahead and placed the cherry blossoms I had gathered into ice trays, making gorgeous flower ice cubes to go into the drink.
The components all came together in a champagne glass, for a favorite sip to kick off spring!
Flower Ice Cubes For The Perfect Drink
With so many edible flowers in bloom throughout the summer months, why not pick them, freeze them in ice trays for a year of beautiful drinks!
The petals of flowers, when frozen in ice cubes, remain almost as beautiful as when they were picked.
What a wonderful way to lengthen the pleasure of beautiful flowers. The same can be done with herbs, such as mint for your mojitos!
Edible Nasturtium Flowers Are My Favorite To Grow And Cook With
These vibrant citrus colored flowers bloom all during the warm weather, and then when I bring them inside in a cold yet sunny room, they bloom all winter.
Freshly cut nasturtium flowers have found their way to several crostini recipes I enjoy with grilled fruit and nuts on top.
The leaves, also known as watercress, are rich in nutrients and vitamins which makes them a smart choice to chop and add to an omelette, or on top of a Spinach Pesto Pizza I like to make.
Since this edible plant grows well indoors, it has become a surprising addition to a Detox Green Smoothie when winter calls for us to increase our vitamin intake.
What’s Not To Love About Tiny Borage Flowers
Such a unique tiny flower, with its starburst of blueish purple, sometimes pale pink color, growing at the very tips of what looks like a strange and hairy plant.
Having the unique flavor of a hint of cucumber, these tiny flowers are perfect for summer salads, a favorite Cold Cucumber Soup, on top of a favorite ice cream, such as my Beetroot Ice Cream for a stunning contrast of colors, or sitting proud on a favorite colored Macaron.
Having tossed my hat into the ring and tried out for The Great American Baking Show, I spent 3 months practicing to fast become a pastry chef, and these pretty little flowers went on top many a pastry!
Multicolored Edible Pansies and Little Violas
The beautiful colors found in flowers of the violet family have such a contrast of violet with bright yellow, or deep purple and white that makes them stand out no matter what favorite way you choose to use them.
When peach season arrives, these multi-colored flowers look spectacular on top of a grilled peach crostini, made with homemade pecan bread!
Keeping these tiny beauties, which seem to grow back each year both in the ground and in pots I didn’t know they were in, saved in ice cubes, assures a beautiful drink any time of year.
Recently I have tried my hand at making candied flowers out of these lovely little violas to sit proud on top of a favorite cookie recipe.
I am excited to share that recipe with you here and just how easy it is to make crystallized petals that last for months.
There is no set way to use these edible flowers, different sorts of dishes or drinks lend themselves to a splash of color.
Edible Flowers In The Vegetable Garden
We might think of edible flowers as those plants intended to be flowers, but there are so many vegetables that start out as little flowers before becoming a vegetable, and they are all edible too.
When my vegetable garden comes to life in June and July the excitement and creativity begin.
Okra first appears as a tropical looking flower, and nearly over night, you wake to a tender okra waiting to be picked.
Adorable Lemon Cucumbers, those round yellow balls that look like a lemon but are just an heirloom variety of cucumbers, first have a lovely yellow flower.
When I make my cold lemon cucumber soup recipe, I serve it inside the yellow cucumber as a bowl, and place one of its flowers on top.
Remember though, once the vegetable flower is picked, that often means there will be no vegetable!
Let’s not forget the flowers that form on top of many herbs; chive flowers, oregano flowers, bee balm, dill which to me looks similar to fennel flowers.
Placing the dill flowers in a glass jar with olive oil, lemon, a splash of vinegar and garlic makes for a delicious dressing for roasted veggies, salads and marinade for meats and fish.
Each of the herbs that flower produce the same flavor of the herb, in its flower.
Did You Know That A Fig Is Not A Fruit But Rather A Flower?
The ultimate edible flower is in fact the fig! That’s right, fig trees don’t flower like most other fruit trees. Their inverted flowers bloom inside the fruit we see on the fig tree.
And yes, I now have two fig trees growing in my yard that have contributed to many recipes I’ve created and became the inspiration for a PBS TV show that I was featured in!
The Great American Recipe, season one, asked us to submit the recipes we would make if we made it to the final of the competition. I did and I called my recipes a trio for a Fig Finale!
The Culinary Journeys Of Edible Flowers Inspired My Recent Published Cookbook
From the quiet short days of winter when I begin planting seeds in tiny pots indoors to be transplanted outside in warmer weather, through the vast spring recipes, delicious edible flower recipes for a summer’s hot day, right into the harvest of autumn, my new book has something for every season.
Candied Edible Flower Petals
Equipment
- small artist paint brush
Ingredients
- 1 Egg white
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1-2 cups Superfine sugar blitz granulated sugar
- Fresh flowers or petals 30 large or 90 small
Instructions
- Beat egg whites with lemon juice until frothy.
- Paint each flower individually, front and back with a very small artist or makeup brush. Sprinkle with sugar on both sides and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet to dry.
- Leave out to dry for 24 hours until they are completely free of moisture, stiff and brittle to the touch.
- Transfer to an airtight container and store in a pantry for up to one year.
Video
Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.