Are you looking for entertaining ways to spice up your cooking? For centuries, edible flowers have been used to embellish food and adorn platters. They can be prepared into teas and preserves, eaten raw in salads, or chopped into dressings.
In addition to enhancing the color and appearance of your food, edible flowers also include antioxidants and vitamins A and C.
The most popular edible flowers you can plant and eat are listed, and the variety of uses for these beautiful blooms will astound you!
Mint
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Mint blossoms give every meal or beverage a breezy touch. Mint flowers can be consumed in either a cooked or raw state.
Each mint type has its distinctive flavor, and some even have flavors like lemon, grapefruit, apple, and, get ready for this, chocolate!
Although they can be found in a variety of meals and beverages, including ice cream and cocktails, mint flowers are also added to teas, jellies, and sauces.
Planting this resilient herb in a pot instead of the ground can help you manage its hardy spread.
Arugula
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Arugula blossoms are a versatile ingredient that may enhance various recipes with color and flavor. Arugula flowers can be used as a simple garnish for soups and stews or as a simple addition to a salad. Additionally, they go well with egg sandwiches, quiches, and frittatas. They’re also a healthy touch for pizzas, nachos, sandwiches, and wraps. Arugula flowers are an all-purpose ingredient that may give a variety of foods a distinctive flavor and eye-catching appearance.
Lavander
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Both sweet and savory meals can benefit from adding lavender flowers, which can be used fresh or dried. It’s vital to use lavender flowers sparingly while cooking because they tend to dominate other flavors.
Making lavender sugar, incorporating it into baked goods like shortbread or scones, and flavoring sauces or marinades are common ways to utilize lavender in food. Additionally, lavender can be used to flavor tea or lemonade.
Violet
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Violet blossoms are a lovely and adaptable garnish for many cuisines. Violets have delicious leaves and blooms that can be utilized either fresh or dried.
Violets blend well with both savory and sweet foods thanks to their delicate floral flavor. Making violet syrup, incorporating them into salads or soups, and using them as a garnish on cakes or ice cream are a few common uses for violet flowers in food. Additionally, violets can be added to drinks or used to brew tea. Using violet flowers sparingly is vital because too much of them might have an overwhelming flavor.
Squash Blossoms
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Squash blossoms have a delicate flavor that goes well with various recipes and can be used both cooked and raw. Squash flowers can be prepared in a variety of ways, including blending them with cheese or herbs, frying them, incorporating them in salads or soups, and cooking them with pasta.
You may also use squash blossoms as a garnish on foods like pizza or quesadillas. However, before cooking, it’s crucial to remove the pistil and stamens from the center of the flower on squash blossoms.
Nasturtium
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Nasturtium blossoms complement both sweet and savory foods because of their peppery, somewhat spicy flavor. Nasturtium blossoms can be used in several common culinary preparations, such as salads, soups, stews, and compound butter. Additionally, nasturtium blooms can be used to flavor vinegar or oil or to create a natural food color.
Chamomile
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Fresh and cooked meals benefit from chamomile flowers’ sweet, mellow, herbal flavor. The entire blossom is edible and can be added to salads, used as a garnish for roasted meat, or used as a tea infusion. Whether in raised beds, containers, or in-ground gardening, these flowers, usually called English daisies, are simple to grow.
Calendula
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The edible blossoms of the calendula plant have a mildly spicy flavor. Use calendula’s petals to color soups, salads, and other meals. Since they dislike heat, these flowers can be produced from seeds in chilly climates. Calendulas give a bitter zest to any dish, and their vivid fresh petals are frequently used as a seasoning, garnish, or traditional yellow colorant.
Thyme
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Thyme flowers work well in salads or soups because they have a milder flavor than the leaves. Once established, this perennial plant thrives in practically any soil and is highly drought-resistant. The Thymus genus has about 350 species, many of which are edible. This includes species that are commonly used medicinally or decoratively.
Marigold
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Marigold petals have a mildly lemony flavor that goes well with most meals. They can also be used fresh or dried. Adding marigold flowers to salads, soups, and stews for a splash of color and taste, incorporating them into baked products like cakes or muffins, and using them to make tea or infused cocktails are some common uses for marigold flowers in food.
Additionally, marigold blooms can be used to flavor honey or provide a natural food color. It’s vital to utilize marigold flowers carefully because if you use too many of them, their flavor might become overbearing.
Lovage
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The intense, herbal flavor of lovage flowers complements savory foods like soups, stews, and roasted meats. Adding lovage blossoms to salads, flavoring vinegar or oils, and putting them into compound butter are a few common uses for them in food. Tea and infused drinks can also be made with lovage blossoms.
Borage
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Borage is an herb with lovely blue edible blooms and leaves. In various drinks and cuisines, borage is used as a dry herb, garnish, or decoration. To make herbal tea, the leaves of this plant are occasionally crushed and steeped in boiling water. Borage can self-seed for many years and grow quickly from seeds.
The mild, cucumber-like flavor of borage flowers complements both savory and sweet foods. Borage blossoms can be used in a variety of dishes, including salads, baked products like cakes and muffins, and even cocktails and other drinks as garnish. Additionally, you can utilize borage flowers to make vinegar or tea.
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This originally appeared on Planet Natural.
Melissa Pino is a biologist, master gardener, and regular contributor for Planet Natural. Melissa's work focuses on promoting environmentally-friendly practices, helping people create healthy gardens and finding ways to achieve overall health and wellness.
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