Edible Flowers

love, love, love making rose and honey tea.
Thanks for reminding me the beauty of edible flowers.

hello again heidi, i’ve had cherry blossom jams before, and it seems they are all prepared with pickled blossoms rather than fresh ones, as pretty much all sakura things are here! maybe i’ll try and experiment myself. on another note, i’ve enjoyed your rose petal granola so much, and it has partly inspired me to make chamomile granola… not bad either! thanks always for your inspiration x

I’ve been eyeballing my day lilies the last few years, but I just don’t have enough to eat instead of blooming. I saw they were initially grown in China for food, as all parts are considered edible (though with so many bred now, it’s best to check before chomping). Lily blossoms for stuffing would be easier to source than squash.

Not really cooking with flowers but….. I like my boys (5&7) to think outside the box (supermarket) when it comes to food if they can.
They often are found sucking on the sweet end of our nasturtium flowers that run rampant at the front of our house before school.
My favorite though is getting them to stick borage flowers (pulled from the green) on the tips of their tongues while the other says “borage for courage” and then eating them down. Brave boys haha! I have a dehydrator. You can set it on low for delicate things such as petals and herbs. Wonderful investment.

I love violets & we have lots of violets here growing wild by the side of the road and in clumps on the field…I never thought of drying them as almost too beautiful to pick. So what/how can I use them once dried?!

This is inspiring! I have a garden full of flowers and never seem to do much more with them in the kitchen than decorate the top of a cake. I just looked at the lilac sugar link. My lilacs are in bloom. Sugar in the cupboard. What a simple, lovely idea!

Love this!
I recently made a rose petal za’taar spice blend which is so so good. Inspired to try some other flowers in my cooking.

The Culinary Library currently has Volume 2. with our publishing editors and the subject is ‘Edible Flowers & Leaves’. Will send you a copy when its finished because it is simply the most comprehensive definitive title on the subject with great recipes and ideas.

i have loved edible flowers since the day my mother topped a salad with nasturtiums.
recently, i made your rose sugar and dunked donuts in it, definitely a winner! i am trying to expand my edible flower repertoire so i have loved reading everyone’s comments!

This is making me so excited for cooking and baking with edible flowers!!
Jourdan

I’ve been fascinated by your use of dried rose petals in simple breakfast concoctions like granola and yogurt and have been on the lookout for organic roses so that I can try. Thank you for this primer!
Another way I’ve used rose petals or violets in the past is to sugar them: Paint them lightly with egg white, dip them in superfine granulated sugar and allow the petals to sit out on parchment an hour or two until they dry. These look so lovely just scattered on top of a simply frosted birthday cake. It’s so easy but folks always seem delighted and impressed.

I am crazy for edible flowers and use them in as many recipes as I can! ps thanks so very much for linking to my lilac honey. I regret not making more of it…it’s really delicious.

All I can say is wow. So many great additional comments to your (always great) post… I love flowers as much as the next girl but this really turned my head around! I hope to be adventurous enough to try making my own batch soon, anyone know of an organic flower source in Toronto?

Fabulous. Thanks Heidi.

Hi Heidi. Funny to read your post today because I had been thinking about writing you to tell you about my friend’s cookbook that just came out this spring, by Miche Bacher (which I see several people have recommended as well, yeah!) I have always felt that you and Miche would have a lot in common and very similar styles. Perhaps you will get a chance to meet someday!

I love to make chive blossom salt. Throw sea salt and chive blossoms (I like a high blossom-to-salt ratio) in the food processor until the blossoms are broken down enough to incorporate nicely into the salt. Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet for a couple of days to dry, stirring every once in awhile, and store in a small jar. This stuff is amazing! I love it on hard boiled eggs but it takes just about anything to the next level.

Lovely timing. My chives are in full bloom and don’t know what to do with them. Looking forward to trying the chive blossom vinegar. During my time in Australia it was common to have hibiscus flowers in champagne.

Heidi,
Thank you so much for this post. Cooking with flowers is on my list to learn, and this is a great motivation to get started. Any info/tips on lavender?
Thanks again!

Edible flowers are truly wonderful. I use them in salads and even in cocktails. My favourites are borage (sweet, cucumber flavour) and marigolds!
x

I just planted some zucchini, and this post reminded me that I’ll also be able to harvest the blossoms to fry. Made my day!

I love Magdalen’s idea with the honeysuckle! My neighbor’s spills over my fence and I love the smell — have been wondering if I could use it in food. Does the sweetness stay once it’s dried?
Just made lavender salt – just ground lavender flowers and tossed in a jar with coarse salt, then let sit to infuse. A friend puts it on everything, from meat to chocolate cake. Going out to pick rose petals right now.

I recently received copies of one old and one new cookbook on cooking with flowers…’Cooking with Flowers’ by Miche Bacher of Mali B. Sweets and ‘The forgotten Art of Flower Cookery’ by Leona Woodring Smith. I can’t grow roses very well because of the amount of rain we receive but I do grow nasturtiums, geraniums, violas, squash, and use the blooms from several herbs. I usually don’t dry them but use fresh.

Borage flowers. Flowers from kale, arugula , broccoli, all work.

What gorgeous photos! I love using edible flowers. Right now I am saving lilac petals for a batch of lilac wine. You can freeze them until you have enough. If you’d like to join me and try making lilac wine, you can start saving them and I’ll be posting about the process next week.

Loving the flowers. I’ve been sweeting them up all spring, and it is high time I dive into the savory realm. That said, have you tried feijoa flowers? They are an oddly satisfying, fleshy, sweet and unintimidating blossom from the feijoa bush, aka, pineapple guava. They grow everywhere where I live. I could imagine you doing wonders with them in a shoot.

You can microwave them to dry them, but they will get kinda stuck to the platter so this is best if you plan to make it into a dust or mix into a salt.
Don’t forget that a surprising amount of people have dehydrators–a post on facebook might have you loaned the equipment you need for a big batch. Go ahead and slice some tomatoes, strawberries, apricots or other fruits in half while you’re at it and dry those too!

Have you seen the recently released cookbook on cooking with flowers? I’m blanking on the name right now, but it’s incredibly beautiful, and the recipes/ideas in it sound fabulous.

I like to dry jasmine and honeysuckle to add to loose chai for a lovely floral note. I just dry by laying them out on the windowsill on some waxed paper then storing in a paper bag until I’m ready to use them. I’ve tried using a dehydrator before but found it to produce dried flowers that smelled just a little big cooked.

I want to dance in these photos…
Heidi xo

thanks for this post. i was looking for some fresh ideas and this really inspired me. just made some lavender simple syrup using dried buds and it was incredible for cocktails. great photos and tips. thanks again.

Edible flowers are so lovely! As a little girl in France, I used to eat sweets made of violet flowers, they were small pastilles shaped like the flower. The smell and taste were just incredible. I also tasted tiny flowers recently with mussels cooked in a broth of apple cider, very flavoursome!
I will keep the tips on drying the flower petals, might come in handy sometime.

I had a courgette flower stuffed with manchego, lightly battered and fried, but then drizzled with some honey – I’ve never forgotten it!
I love it when the chive flowers come out, and one year my thyme plant came out in little white flowers, that was beautiful on everything.
I know sometimes rose petals make their way into harissa paste, but harissa is such a strong flavour, I’ve rarely felt the roses made much of a contribution. A friend of mine makes homemade butter with rose petals, gorgeous for a special tea time.

I love that this post was delivered to my inbox right after eating some hibiscus sorbet. So timely. Yum! Flowers!

I have an edible flower salt grinder that came in a set from Trader Joes. It was a Christmas present, and I haven’t been sure what to do with it. It’s the only I have that is still full.

Thanks for all the tips. I was just trying to source some yesterday to make summer ice cubes with. This post helped a lot.

I´ve read you can also make a small bag with muslin and hang inside your petals in a dry and warm place for a couple of days shaking it. Of course it should be a small ammount.
For bigger leaves like sage and lavender i just hang a bunch of them in a dry place over my kitchen and they dry perfect.

did you see the pickled rose petal recipe in the may MSLiving? it seemed almost absurd … and almost addictive. looked like a cinch to make, and wow, did it light up the look of a platter of grilled zucchini, doused in olive oil and mortared with feta.

HS: Looking feverishly for last month’s MSL…..

I want to put in a good word for lavender flowers. Although I’ve enjoyed growing them in the past for their beauty and fragrance, I’ve never dried my own. I purchased what I envisioned would be a small amount of blossoms marketed explicitly as edible and have been drawing from the same batch for years. I use them primarily when brewing tisanes (herbal teas).

I make rose petal jam and rose petal syrup. I also use fresh rose petals on top of cakes. The rest get dried!

A lovely post Heidi. Flowers just add so much to the look and scent of dishes.
In the UK steenbergs.co.uk do good quality edible dried rose petals and lavender, in fact I’ve just ordered more of the rose petals to make a fresh batch of your gorgeous granola.
Last year I grew nasturtiums to eat the flowers but I must admit I didn’t have much luck as they just did too good a job as a companion plant to my veggies and got covered in little black aphids. Apparently the trick is to plant another nasturtium just for eating along way from your veg plot.
I’m currently planning to build a greenhouse later this year and this has got me wondering if that might work as a good place to dry petals.

Lovely ideas! My nasturtiums are just blooming all over the garden as we speak :). I’ll be honest, I use basil flowers almost as much as leaves – I love their strong taste and they are easy to get into salads when I’m feeling lazy!

Talking about edible flowers, I love the Indian style stir fry. It is a pain & technique to clean the banana flowers, but I think it is well worth the effort. I have made it following my Mom’s recipe. I can post if you like.

Do you have a good online source for purchasing edible flowers? I wanted to try your Mast-o-Khiar recipe some time ago, but could only find Rose hips at the store I go to (Central Market). Even at Amazon, they seem to have pedals, but I am not sure about their origin.

Heidi, this is special. I was just talking with my mom this morning about the fact that lilacs are edible. Who knew?! We’ve been pulling in lots of them up north here in Michigan and enjoying the scent, and I think the flavor would be divine. Can’t wait to go after the cherry blossoms here next year, and the lavender this summer.
Of course, with my Lebanese background I love Rose & Orange Blossom, and named my blog after them…how exciting to explore beyond those two.

I’m so glad you shared these tips on drying flowers! What a fun project!

bachelor’s buttons, oregano, lavender, and mint flowers are others i use. there are so many! recently i was out of dried roses, so i made your rose petal granola with a mixture of wild violets and pink apple blossoms (pistils/stamens removed) from our land. epicurious has a great lavender scone recipe that is excellent with lemon curd. they also have a recipe for chamomile-infused whipped cream which is great with summer berries. for drying, i made a simple wood frame with fine wire. i’ve come across similar items at flea markets. thanks for sharing.

Beautiful! I haven’t dared yet to cook/decorate with edible flowers, but I’m definitely going to grow some soon with your tips. Thanks!

I have edible roses in my garden and I make a very tasty rose petal jam.

hi heidi,
this is lovely. do you have the new book by miche bacher? i also saw winnie abramson’s post on lilac honey recently and wanted to try it. xo

HS: No, Shari – clearly I need to track it down! Will look for Winnie’s post too. xo

What a timely post and a beautiful one! I just got a new cookbook about cooking with flowers and I’ve been amazed just reading the recipes. Havent tried any yet but need to. Beautiful images, Heidi!

I dry my flowers and whatnot on some old (clean) window screens. The increased circulation of air (since it can now get beneath them) tends to speed up the drying process.

The sage and kale are blooming right now. Both are very good in salad, as are the chive blossoms.

i just tried my hand at drying and pickling cherry blossoms and leaves this year, and am now drying a batch of chamomile flowers! now thinking i might dry some lavenders too when they are around. but wish i could try and dry rose petals too – would love to try rose petal jam i’d see a lot in poland!

HS: Hi Chika – you def. get some good blooms there. Maybe you could try with cherry blossoms or something more available in the summer there. Although the color on many of the rose petal jams is a complete knockout. xo!