The enjoyment of food is a multisensory experience; from the sound of someone in the kitchen preparing a meal with love, and the delicious, wafting aroma, to obviously the mouth-watering taste of a beautiful meal.
However, too often, the visual delight of a meal is overlooked. One of the easiest ways to remedy this, is – Cooking with Flowers.
Cooking with Flowers adds colour, fun, elegance, zest and art to any food you are serving.
Please see my blog last week, Edible Flowers(1), for a list of which flowers are edible, and the nutrients in each of them. Cooking with Flowers, is about how to create meals that will impress your family and friends by adding a blend of blossoms to both sweets and savoury dishes.
A few suggestions first…
- Try and pick your flowers just before cooking with them
- If you are buying the flowers, cover them with a damp cloth and keep them in the fridge in an airtight container (they will last three or four days this way)
- Wash flowers thoroughly, but delicately in cold water, before using
- Use the petals (discard the pistils and stamens)
- Add flowers to the meal after you have finished cooking, do not actually cook them, as the flowers are too fragile, and will break up
Cooking with Flowers…
Pizza ~ sprinkle flower petals over your pizza(2) just before serving.
Rice ~ cook any rice dish as you normally would, and adorn with a mix of orange, red and yellow marigold and nasturtium petals.
Salads ~ make up your favourite salad, add your dressing of choice, and toss through a mix of chive blossoms, sage, mint and borage flowers, and nasturtium petals.
Jam ~ rose petal jam, recipe below(3), is a delicious delicacy, simply superb spread on scones at your next tea party. (The recipe below is a lovely one, although I prefer coconut sugar to regular sugar, and I only use half a cup.)
Pasta ~ chive blossoms are excellent mixed in with bread or pasta dough(4).
Chamomile tea ~ add fresh lavender sprigs to your chamomile tisane for an even more relaxing infusion.
Cakes ~ let your creative genius go mad decorating your next cake. Violas, lavender, pink and red rose petals, and a variety of berries, look especially spectacular.
Fruit salad ~ make a colour themed fruit salad, such as red, orange, or a mix of yellow and green. Let’s say you choose red, cut up plums, apples and pink grapefruit, add a mix of red and blue berries, and toss with rose, hibiscus, and carnation petals. Alternatively choose a rainbow theme and toss in every colour you can think of.
Icy poles (popsicles) ~ pour coconut water and flower petals into icy pole moulds and freeze for the perfect summer cool down.
Ice cubes ~ freeze a mix of sunflower and rose petals, pansies, and violas, in ice cubes for the next time you are serving ice in drinks. They look superb in a punch bowl, iced tea or any other cool drink of choice.
Handy hint: to stop flowers floating to the top of the ice, half fill the ice tray with water, add the flower, freeze, then top up the water and re-freeze; the flower will then sit in the centre of the ice.
Cooking is like art, there is no right or wrong ~ there is only creativity and passion. Enjoy Cooking with Flowers, drink fine tea, dare to be different, and share kindness every day… May your magick serve you well. ~ GreenWitch Tea
(1) Edible Flowers (2) Vegan pizza recipes
2 Comments. Leave new
i love this follow up to the edible flower blog, so many things to learn so little time,
i will be planting a new edible garden next to the organic vegetable patch, and when summer
comes back around coconut water icy poles and blocks of ice with flowers inside brilliant!
and the handy hint with getting the flowers centered in the ice blocks love it
thanks greenwitchtea.com
Hi Mark, that is fabulous you are planting an edible flower garden, brilliant stuff. Enjoy the icy poles come summer, and thanks for your comment :-))
Many blessings )o(