If you want to make your recipes look really gourmet and give them flair, try cooking with flowers. Edible flowers add beauty but also lots of flavour and interest. Flowers make wonderful additions to all kinds of dishes. You can use them in soups, salads, main dishes, appetizers and desserts. Flower bouquets are not only beautiful but they are a nutritious ingredient for your cooking.
Certainly not every flower is something that you can cook and eat but there are a large variety of flowers that are really very tasty. They add the decorative quality to your dishes and even nutritional value. There is nothing quite as lovely as flower petals floating in soup. When you want to impress your dinner guests, remember to make a visit to the florist for some edible flowers to add to your recipes.
Try to find flowers that are organically grown. Ask your florist what they recommend and how they would suggest you use the flowers in your cooking. Always be sure to wash them carefully like you do with your vegetables that you cook.
In general, adding the sweeter flowers to your dishes is both easy and effective. These are petals of carnations, the blossoms of the apple or citrus fruit trees and violets. For any main dish recipe, you can use herbs and broccoli florets. The vegetable that have flowers that are good for eating are broccoli, male squash flowers, okra and arugula. The arugula blossoms have a horseradish kind of taste. The entire fennel plant is good for cooking with the tiny flowers much like aniseed and this pairs well with salmon.
It is commonly known that the flowers of herbs add a fresh flavor to dishes. The herbs that have edible flowers are lavender, mint, basil, dill, sage, chives, thyme and rosemary. Sugar made from lavender makes an excellent sweetener for making tea, jelly and cookies. The rosemary has little buds that are good for cooking with any meat or can be added to salads. The flowers of dill go well in an omelettes while the flowers of the dandelion appear buttery but taste of pepper. The flowers of the chive have a gentle onion taste and they have a crunch when you bit into them so they are great for salads.
Other flowers that can be used in cooking come from the ornamental variety of flowers. They include chamomile, impatiens, violets, chrysanthemum, violas, nasturtiums, hollyhock, calendula, daylilies, rose-scented geraniums, bergamot and pansies.
For spicing up your salads or adding interest to your soup by floating flower petals is a good addition to your menu. Crystallizing hollyhock flowers are good dessert garnishments. The main dishes like omelettes, souffles, rice dishes and breads go well with calendula. There is a peppery flavor with nasturtiums and they pair well with guacamole or cheese. The day lilies taste a lot like asparagus so they work really well in a stir fry dish or in soups.
Shrubs and trees also have edible flowers and they are the blossoms from the lilac, plum, peach, pear, and apple trees. Crystallized rose petals make wonderful jams and jellies. Wedding cakes are easily made quite spectacular by adding edible flowers for the decorations. Always buy your edible flowers from a florist that you can trust and ask for their advice in cooking with the flowers you choose.
For a wide variety of flowers to choose from for the perfect gift, visit Adam Fowler’s Online Florist at ModeFlowers.com!
