What Are Edible Flowers and How Can You Use Them at Best in The Kitchen

The cuisine of the last decades has accustomed us to seeing a floral hint in dishes: the trend of edible flowers had exploded, plants that were beautiful to look at on the plate but also safe to eat. The beauty of contemporary cuisine, however, is its ability to continually reinvent itself. So flowers become real ingredients, no longer just a decorative element, and tables are filled with rose petal cakes, spicy nasturtium risottos, meat cooked with the spicy flavor of marigold. Even the great protagonists of starred kitchens have been won over by the combination of cuisine and nature. Just think of Quique Dacosta and his experimental cuisine, which had been using ingredients such as cherry blossoms for a long time, but also of Italian chef Rosa D'Agostino, who in her kitchen at the Albergo Ristorante “Da Gin” invented violet mayonnaise and wild primrose fritters.

What Are Edible Flowers and How to Use Them in Cooking

Floral cuisine is more than a passing fad. What seems like just another gourmet experiment is actually based on the habits of our ancestors, cooking using all the ingredients that nature offers. And it is not reserved only for great chefs: everyone can have fun using flowers, as long as they use them carefully.

Not all flowers are edible, and although there are more than 40 species of edible flowers, many others can be toxic to the body, or even poisonous. It is essential to know well the species that can be used, before starting with experiments. Knowing, for example, that calendula officinalis gives the dish a slightly spicy touch and is excellent with meat for its bitter taste. That for a stronger flavor you use tagetes, similar to curry, that for spiciness you use nasturtium, spicy and perfect for risottos, soups and cream soups, while to replace garlic you use tulbaghia violacea. Viola cornuta has a delicate flavor, salvia elegans recalls pineapple, salvia dorisiana instead has an intense peach aroma, details that make these flowers perfect for pastry making. The flavours are very varied, but it is not easy to learn to recognise them and use them in the right way; even the most expert chefs have to study to be able to do so.

Where to Buy Edible Flowers? The Secrets to Buying and Consuming Them

A fundamental aspect of floral cuisine is the choice of flower, not only from a taste point of view, but also from the provenance. It is forbidden to buy flowers to cook in nurseries: they often use chemical treatments in the cultivation and conservation phases that make the plant unsuitable for ingestion. It is also better to avoid flowers near roads, cities or places where pollution is particularly intense. Edible flowers must come from the countryside, be spontaneous or cultivated in a completely natural way. If you do not feel ready to collect them independently, you can contact companies in the sector specialized in the organic cultivation of flowers destined to become ingredients.

To strengthen this type of trade, the Antea project was also born , committed to developing a food flower supply chain: thanks to its work, the number of companies dedicated to the production of edible flowers is constantly increasing.

Whether you buy it or pick it yourself, once you have your flowers, there are two ways to consume them: fresh, but without washing them with running water because they would ruin and lose the velvety patina in which the main properties are collected. Or dried on baking paper and away from a direct light source, to be stored in a glass or tin container to create your own personal herbalist's shop.

Edible Flower Recipes: Ideas to Start Cooking Them

Now you know everything there is to know about edible flowers, but how do you actually use them? A recipe to start with, for example, is rose risotto: halfway through cooking, after you have browned the onion, butter and oil and left the rice to cook, deglazing it with white wine and broth, add the julienned rose petals and mix well, then add butter and parmesan.

Another recipe you can try, quick and very simple, is the omelette with dandelion flowers, better known as lion's tooth: about twenty are enough, to be combined with oil, chopped parsley, eggs, salt, pepper, milk, breadcrumbs and grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Beat the eggs, mix all the ingredients and cook in a non-stick pan on both sides.

And if you want to experiment with a more challenging recipe, try making a quinoa burger with marigold flowers, a special and tasty natural meat substitute. You have to toast and blanch a hectogram of quinoa in water and let it thicken (as you do with couscous), and then mix it with eggs, two tablespoons of marigold flowers, pepper and spices of your choice. Let it rest for three hours in the fridge, then mix your vegetable burger and cook it in a pan.