Edible Flowers

I

Introduction

Edible Flowers, flower blossoms or buds that can be eaten. Edible flowers are used in a variety of dishes to add flavors ranging from sweet and floral to pungent and spicy. Flowers are typically floated on soups or sprinkled on salads for color and flavor. When stuffed with spiced ricotta or cottage cheese they make a flavorful and unusual side dish. Stir-fried or deep-fried flowers are used for tasty hors d’oeuvres. Flowers often are candied or crystallized—brushed with egg white and dusted with granulated sugar and then air dried—to make sweets or to decorate desserts. Edible flowers are also used to enhance beverages, jams and jellies, butters, vinegars, and water. Most edible flowers are used in small amounts and, because they are used lightly, contribute little to a dish’s nutritional value.

The culinary use of flowers dates back thousands of years to the ancient civilizations of China, Greece, and Rome. Edible flowers were also grown in American colonial gardens. In the United States and Europe their popularity waned after the Victorian era in the early 20th century, but the popularity of edible flowers has grown with recent interest in Asian and Indian cooking.

II

Sample Edible Flowers

A variety of flower blossoms are used to enhance cuisines. Calendula, also called pot marigold, is a daisy-like flower with yellow petals that impart a tangy flavor to tea, butters, soups, egg dishes, and rice. Since Roman times, calendula has been used as an affordable substitute for saffron, an expensive spice made from crocus flowers.

Day Lily, with its large, trumpet-shaped petals in a wide range of colors, is chopped and added to salads and soups. The dried buds, called golden needles, are mentioned in early Chinese writing and are still used in Asian dishes.

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The orange, white, or red flowers of nasturtium have a peppery flavor and are used to enhance salads or sandwiches. The round, lobed leaves are also edible. Nasturtium’s use as a food has been credited to the ancient Persians and Peruvians.

Rose flowers have edible petals and seedpods, or hips. Both were commonly used in the Victorian era and are still popular in Asian and Indian cooking. Rose hips are rich in vitamin C and are often steeped for tea or made into jellies. The petals are used to make fragrant rose water and rose syrup, brewed into a tea, or crystallized.

Violet has been eaten since the days of the Roman Empire. The small, sweet, delicate purple or white blossoms are ideal for decorating desserts and punches and are well suited to being crystallized.

The large trumpet-shaped white or yellow flowers of zucchini taste like cucumber. In France and Italy, cooks stuff the blossoms with a soft cheese, such as ricotta, flavored with herbs, or dip them in batter and deep-fry them to make a fritter, a small sweet cake. In Mexico the blossoms are sautéed and used to fill tortillas.

III

Cooking with Flowers

Before using flower blossoms for cooking, consider their source. Flowers picked from roadsides may contain dangerous levels of lead from car exhaust. And flowers sold by a florist may have been treated with chemicals that keep the blooms lasting longer. To avoid unsafe chemical residues, use only organically grown flowers, and wash all flowers thoroughly before use. Fully opened flowers should be picked in the morning, when their moisture content is highest; buds can be picked at any time.

When eating flowers for the first time, start with only a few. Until your digestive system is accustomed to flowers, eating too many may cause a stomachache. Usually just the flower petals are eaten, not the pollen-bearing stamens, which often have an unpleasant flavor. For some flowers, such as roses and marigolds, the bitter white base of the petal is removed.

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