Certain flowers add interesting flavor, healthy nutrition and delicate appeal to foods.
Some flowers are more than just pleasant to look at and wonderfully scented; they can also boast interesting flavors or nutritional value. Whether you want to reduce varicose veins or impress dinner guests with haute cuisine, nibbling on certain flora provides an edible alternative to medications, garnishes and costly spices. Does this Spark an idea?
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
This lovely flower adds grace and luscious, fragrant flavor with its lemony citrus undertones to many different main dishes, desserts and drinks. The pretty bloom adds a fresh, bright note to stews or soups much like a squeeze of lemon. Add interesting essence to chocolate cake or souffle by including petals in the batter and sprinkling them over top of frosting. Top a glass of champagne, sweet tea or lemonade with a lavender blossom for a classy touch, or garnish a bowl of ice cream or sorbet to add appeal.
Wild Pansy (Violas)
The heart-shaped flower petals of the wild pansy add a peppery, wintermint zing to meaty or vegetarian main dishes. Believed to help with the treatment of ailments, such as eczema, varicose veins, cardiovascular disease, asthma and epilepsy, the delicate, purple, wild flowers contain rutin, a long-studied bioflavonoid, according to the Nutrition Research Center.
Dandelions (Taraxacum officinalis)
Tiny dandelion buds have the best flavor.
You'll never look at weeding the garden the same way again after eating dandelion flower-tops. Pick the tiny, new buds when they first begin to sprout. The small bunches of unopened blooms tucked close to the ground taste like sweet honey and are great steamed or raw, sprinkled over rice, salads or stir-fry. Even the young leaves are tender and tasty as a salad addition. Dandelion flower-tops are also used to make dandelion wine.
Johnny Jump-Ups (Viola Tricolor)
Add these mildly minty flowers to creamy foods such as cottage cheese or ice cream for a cool, refreshing taste. The wintergreen-scented blossoms enhance a cold glass of home-brewed ice tea or an indulgent milkshake. The delicate yellow, purple and white petals make a beautiful cake, soup or main course garnish.
Marigold (Tagetes tenuifolia - aka T. signata)
If you have ever wished you could afford to experiment with the world's most expensive spice, saffron, try marigold petals as a substitute, suggests What's Cooking America. The fresh, citrus notes infused in this golden flower mimic its expensive counterpart. Saffron is the bright purple-red stigmas of the crocus sativa flower and is used sparingly, even by world-renowned chefs, because of its hefty price tag of around $43 per 5-gram jar, as of 2011. Sprinkle the petals of a marigold generously into any recipe calling for a few threads of saffron, such as chicken and seafood paella, banda rice or fish soup, for a similar flavor experience.
Tags: main dishes, varicose veins