Want to impress friends by adding some color, zest and
uniqueness to a summer salad?
Want to impress friends by adding some color, zest and uniqueness to a summer salad?
Why not garnish that salad with colorful nasturtiums, pansies, marigolds or other edible flowers?
If you haven’t noticed yet, edible blooms are beginning to show up on more and more plates these days. Some make beautiful garnishes, while others have intriguing flavors and textures that can hold their own in a salad.
Some of the best reasons edible flowers make ordinary salads and other family food into something special are their colors. Colorful edible flowers will add excitement and zest to practically any dish.
Plus, with edible flowers, you get the added benefit of beautifying your garden, too. They are dual-purpose plants that can be included in any type of garden – formal, cottage or mixed border. No matter where you grow them, pick them like fruit – in their prime – and enjoy them for their edible attributes, too.
What blooms are tastiest and which ones are more common? As already mentioned, nasturtiums have long been known as a great edible flower. And it doesn’t hurt that nasturtiums are among the easiest flowers to grow. They can easily be started by seed and will grow like a weed, spreading their usually yellow, red or orange flowers along the ground or climbing up fences or other plants.
The bright colors of nasturtiums will enliven mixed greens. They rate among the flower flavor champions, winning high marks for a somewhat peppery bite. Pop a flower into your mouth and as you chew, you first get a sweet essence from the nectar, followed by a bold peppery tang.
A few nasturtium flowers go a long way. While you most likely will find nasturtiums in salads, you might want to try them with guacamole.
You can also make colorful and flavorful vinegar by adding flowers to a good white wine vinegar. Let it sit in the dark for a few weeks (light will fade the color), then strain the flowers out and pour the vinegar into a clean bottle.
Pansies and violas are favorite because they come in so many different colors, including solid colors and combinations. When eating pansies, you can break two of the cardinal rules of edible flowers: eat only the petals and remove the pistils and stamens before eating.
You can eat pansies whole. They have a mild wintergreen flavor, and are just as much at home on cakes as they are in salads. Pansies and violas will grow best in cool garden locations throughout the summer, or full sun in the winter.
Marigolds and calendula: Both of these have almost identical yellow or orange flowers.
Marigolds are a common sight in summer, while calendulas (known as winter marigold) must be grown in the cool of fall or winter. Both have flowers that are usually used as a garnish. The yellow or orange flowers have a rather bland flavor, slightly bitter. However, when scattered over other food, its flavor tends to recede into insignificance.
Rose petals, daylilies, herb flowers, squash blossoms and more are also edible. Squash blossoms have long been eaten fresh or sautéed. The flavor of these yellow-orange flowers is something like fresh squash, with a velvety, slightly crunchy texture.
For more information on tasty flowers, try “Edible Flowers” by Cathy Wilkinson Barash (Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, CO., 1995; $22.95).
