Edible Flowers or Microgreens have taken the culinary world by storm. Due to their unique flavors and colors, they are being added to food to provide an additional taste and aroma. It?s been said that with food presentation or plating, children prefer 6 food colors and 7 different food components. Adults prefer 3 colors and 3 food components, you can understand why culinary experts want to use different types of edible flowers with their creations. Microgreens can be used in any meal, whether a main dish or dessert. Some vegetables are edible flowers and people everywhere are adding these microgreens to salads. Flowers can be used to flavor drinks or even wine. Edible flowers are being used as teas. Culinary experts are utilizing edible flowers in butters, marinades and fruit preserves. The options are endless with over 100 types of common garden flowers that are both edible and palatable.
While the culinary world is expanding their use, cultures all over the world have used edible flowers for thousands of years, due to their beauty and elegance.
You need to know what flowers are edible before you add anything to your food. Take Lilies for instance. Lilies are a beautiful flower, but are highly poisonous when it comes to being consumed.
Daylilies, have a sweet taste and are slightly crispy. Some say they?re occasionally spicy.
Dried daylily blossoms, sold at most Asian markets are used for flavoring or thickening Chinese hot and sour soup. They?re also known as golden needles.
Nasturtium flowers come in various colors like orange, yellow or red. They enhance green salads. They?re known to be slightly peppery. They?re good for cutting the oiliness of smoked salmon.
Hibiscus flowers add their red color to Red Zinger tea and lend a crisp, cranberry tang to the mix. The pale purple chive blossom, imparts all the flavor of onion and garlic to any savory dish. Hibiscus sugar flowers make a gorgeous addition to wedding cakes, along with crystallized rose petals.
In early times, medieval monks made sweet syrup from violet petals. Victorians, candied flowers of violet and borage and used them to decorate wedding cakes and sugar flowers for cupcakes.
Borage, which has a subtle cucumber taste can be used in salads, teas or flavoring water.
Lavender lends a savory and complex flavor to soup and potatoes.
The term Microgreens has been around for 20-30 years. If you plan to buy microgreens to use in your food, be sure to store them at an optimal temperature of 4 degrees Celsius or 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
As with anything new, you should introduce flowers into your diet one at a time. Make sure you do it in small quantities. Large quantities can cause indigestion or allergic reactions.
