By now, you’re probably familiar with the concept of using flowers in cooking. You’ll find them in lots of cuisines around the world in various forms. Both rose water and orange blossom water are considered a staple of many South Asian and Middle Eastern desserts. You may have seen flowers as fancy garnishes on salads and picked them out, but did you know many of them are actually edible? If you want to add class to your repertoire, here are ten ways to bring more flowers into your life.
1. Add them to salads
Photo by Karen Chou
Let’s start off simple. Salads are the quickest way to incorporate flowers into your diet. Candied flowers give this salad a sweet touch, but if you’re more of a purist, try this floral goat’s cheese salad.
2. Use them in drinks
Photo by Clark Halpern
There are so many ways to use flowers in drinks, from hibiscus iced tea to lavender infused lemonade. The infused lemonade uses a lavender simple syrup, but if you’re feeling adventurous try making magnolia or wisteria simple syrup. You could also jazz up any drink by freezing edible flowers into ice cubes.
3. Make fancy butter
Photo by Halley Rose Meslin
If you really want to impress someone without putting in a lot of effort, make floral butter. This recipe uses lavender, but you can totally experiment with rose petals and other edible flowers. If you want to make things extra special, you could even dry the rose petals yourself.
4. Decorate cakes
Photo by Naushin Nawar
Another classic way to use flowers is in cake decorating. Flowers can make a simple cake special, or push an extravagant cake into diva-territory. You could even use inedible flowers (washed well, of course) and just remove them before you cut the cake.
5. Bake!
Photo courtesy of Aimee Twigger on twiggstudios.com
Don’t stop at decorating cakes – chuck those flowers into your baked goods as well. Add some lavender to your shortbread, or if you’re super resourceful, try foraging for dandelions and making biscuits with them.
6. Make fancy lollipops
Photo courtesy of Rachel Beyer on gardentherapy.ca
Crystallise flowers in lollipops to make the most beautiful party favors around. Making candy can be scary, but for results this gorgeous, it’s definitely worth a try!
7. Make sweet frozen treats
Photo courtesy of Gloria Sucic on thegreedyvegan.com
If you don’t want to dive into candy-making just yet, try making ice pops instead. These elderflower ice pops look delicate but require very little time to make. Or if you have more time on your hands, try this salted honey chamomile frozen yogurt. The bee pollen is optional, but highly recommended if you want to look like a pro chef.
8. Decorate cheese
Photo courtesy of themerrythought.com
Because why not. You’re a classy host(ess) now.
9. Make pesto
Photo courtesy of @TarynMarie on flickr.com
Step up your pesto game by adding dandelions or squash blossoms to the mix.
10. Add class to everything
Photo courtesy of Brittni Mehlhoff on paperandstitch.com
This is by no means an exhaustive list. You can add flowers to your pizzas or focaccias. Brighten up a standard chocolate bark, make macarons even more exciting, put flowers in pancakes or when in doubt, just go Scottish and deep fry them. The best thing about using edible flowers? They can be completely free if you know what you’re doing and how to forage. Picking wildflowers just got a lot more exciting.