Instantly add stunning good looks, vibrant colour, subtle texture and intriguing flavours to your dishes with edible flowers.
EAT
Scatter petals over dishes or through fresh salads. If you want to use the whole flower heads, make sure you carefully trim green leaves, stems and the sometimes bitter base of the petals to ensure everything on the plate is edible.
While the majority of edible flowers are used to add an instant pop of colour or interest to a dish as garnish, you can cook with them. Add petals to your fresh pasta or bake them into biscuits or pancakes. For real wow factor, crystallise edible flowers for an even sweeter garnish on desserts and cakes.
VARIETIES
Wild garlic, society garlic and chive flowers exude a mild, sweet onion and garlic flavour, perfect for savoury dishes from a steak to a niçoise salad, sautéed with asparagus or simply stirred through scrambled eggs.
Begonia flowers boast a crunchy, acidic flavour, reminiscent of sorrel leaves.
Viola flowers come in a range of shapes, colours and sizes. Their mild, delicate flavour makes them perfect for savoury or sweet dishes – experiment with ice blocks, appetisers and desserts, or include them in summer roll wrappers. They also make a pretty addition to summer drinks.
Lavender lends a floral and slightly sweet flavour to most dishes – savoury and sweet. A perfect partner to strawberries, blueberries, pears, lemon, orange, honey, sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, black pepper and chocolate. Especially good paired with sheep's-milk and goat's-milk cheeses.
Borage these blue and white star shaped flowers can be used in sweet or savoury dishes. Flowers can also be crystallised in sugar and used in baking.
Calendula petals have a slight sweet, buttery taste with a hint of pepper. Ideal in sandwiches or asparagus rolls and tossed through salads.
Nasturtium, probably the most recognisable edible flower, have large bright orange blooms and are great in salads, pastas and stir fry.
Rose petals are sweet and delicate and can be crystallised with sugar and make a great decoration on cakes.
Marigolds have a sharp, tangy taste, similar to saffron.
Carnations’ surprisingly sweet petals are delicious in desserts, steeped in wine, or used as cake decoration. To use them, ensure you cut the petals away from the bitter white base of the flower.
Dianthuses are the miniature member of the carnation family with a light clove-like or nutmeg scent. Petals add colour to salads or jellies.
Cornflowers have a slightly sweet to spicy, clove-like flavour and can be used as a natural food dye.
Fuchsia blooms have a slightly acidic flavour. Their explosive colours and graceful shape make them ideal for a dramatic garnish.
GROW
Edible flowers are grown year round by the same growers as herb or hydroponic salad leaves. Although harder to grow in winter, they are abundant again in spring!