I bought a container of edible flowers from a stall at the farmers’ market. They were almost too pretty to eat, but we managed.
I add flowers to salads fairly often, but usually they’re not as elegant as these. The salad blossoms out of my garden tend to be borage, nasturtium and calendula, plus edible weeds – violets, daisies, dandelions, Herb Robert, etc.
These ones were very mild tasting. A couple were almost sweet. They certainly looked sweet!
The green part of the salad was some crunchy lettuce from the Suncakes stall at the market, plus a couple of handfuls of chicory and herbs from the garden. The lettuce was torn into bite-sized pieces, and the garden greens were chopped fine.
I tossed the greens with a vinaigrette dressing made with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar (my son Tom bought a bottle of posh balsamic from Sabato last time he was in Auckland, and it’s worth every penny), a pinch of salt, a pinch of mustard powder and a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper. I added the flowers at the end just before serving, so they would still look perfect. They did.
We had the flower salad with pan-fried trevally from Raglan Fish and tray-baked kumara wedges. I didn’t get a photo, because the dinner was eaten very promptly by appreciative family members.
Next time: fairy bread
Next time I have edible flowers I will try making “fairy bread” – Volare ciabatta, sliced thinly, spread with cream cheese icing and decorated with flowers. Who needs hundreds and thousands?
Which flowers are okay to eat?
Here’s a link to an article about edible flowers.
