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Nothing heralds the arrival of summer more than your garden blooming with summer flowers. They are the ultimate celebration of life and nature, adding color, aroma, and joy to our lives. Of course, edible flowers have become ubiquitous in a culinary sense, especially in the Instagram age. Summer gives us edible flowers that we can use in many ways. They are much more than a garnish or decorative element: they can be integral to a dish’s overall flavor. Here are 10 edible summer flowers and how to use them in your cooking.
Roses
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Synonymous with romance and love, roses are delicious to eat. There are many different roses, and they all exhibit different floral flavor profiles. A general rule for using roses in your cooking is that the flower’s perfume can be a guide to what the petals taste like. They generally have a distinctive floral, lemon, and bitter flavor and can be used in many summer dishes. The petals make extraordinary additions to cold plates and salads, and can be soaked overnight to create an infusion. Reduce the infusion and use it on desserts, or on meats. Rose buds and petals stand up well to the fermentation process, so they can be pickled or used to make rose petal wine. Try this recipe for rose and fig macaron.
Nasturtiums
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One of the better-known edible flowers, nasturtiums make a great addition to salads as garnish, but the flowers are best known for their seeds which have a caper-like flavor and can therefore be used wherever capers are used. The seeds can be used for infused butter, or to make vinegars to enhance your salads. Nasturtiums are rich in volatile oils like limonene and are said to have many healthy properties. Try chef Enrico Bartolini’s recipe for steak tartare with nasturtiums.
Chamomile
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Of course you can make tea from chamomile flowers, but you can do much more too. The flowers are quite beautiful and make a stunning garnish, but if you dry your flowers straight after picking them you can keep them for up to a year and use them to infuse preserves, butters, vinaigrette dressings, or as an addition to ice-cream or pastries and baked goods. Try a chamomile and coffee cake or use chamomile flowers to garnish a Zivah cocktail, with this recipe.
Borage
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Borage is one of the most used flowers in restaurant plating as the bold blue color adds a striking visual element. The younger flowers and leaves are very edible, but as they get older, they tend to become a little tough and quite hairy. Borage has a distinct cucumber-like flavor, so they can be used in salads. They also make a good ingredient for cocktails and summer drinks, and go well with bright green soups and seasonal vegetables like beans, peas, spinach, and asparagus. Try this recipe from Venice's famous Vecio Fritolin restaurant which uses lagoon shrimp, beetroot sauce, green peas, and borage flowers.
Lavender
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Apart from the beautiful violet color and evocative perfume, the lavender flower has a wonderfully delicate, sweet flavor that can be added to baked goods and infusions, and paired with citrus flavors. It’s also a great garnish for gin and tonic, and cocktails. Dry the flowers and grind them with salt for a lavender salt to be used all year round, combine with spices like garam masala for a meat rub that will bring back summer memories in the depths of winter, or jazz up a tiramisu with lavender flowers with this recipe.
Calendula
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A gentle floral flavor with just a hint of bitterness makes calendula a flower you can add to salads, salsas, and teas. The petals are a deep yellow-orange color that can be added to risotto or soup to brighten the dish. Calendula is said to have skin soothing, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory properties. Follow tradition and infuse honey with the flowers or keep a jar of dried flowers for tea to soothe a sore throat during winter.
Marigold
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Marigolds have been used in kitchens for centuries with evidence of use in Ancient Rome, the Middle East, and China. They still have significance in Indian culture and cuisine. Like the calendula, they have a floral, slightly bitter flavor, but the petals are bigger and the flower is more visually impactful. Marigolds can substitute for tarragon and the whole flowers can be eaten fresh, once the bitter white part has been removed, or they can be candied for cake decoration. Use marigolds in this recipe for buffalo ricotta gnudi with smoked ham hock, summer squash, corn and herbs.
Chrysanthemums
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Widely used in Japanese cuisine under the name shungiku, chrysanthemums are edible flowers with a slightly grassy, herbal, floral flavor. It is advisable to only eat chrysanthemums grown in your garden, not bought from a garden center where they may be heavily sprayed with pesticides. This goes for all the flowers on this list. Try this Korean chrysanthemum greens recipe (ssukat namul).
Pansies
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With beautiful, big, striking-looking petals, pansies are a chef’s favorite for garnish for salads, charcuterie, and any number of cold dishes. The flowers have a slightly sweet hint to accompany the floral bitterness making an easy and delicious flower to add to your cooking. They can be candied and used as a spectacular addition to your cakes and baked goods. Throw pansies into this mixed salad with edible flowers.
Zucchini flowers
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An obvious choice on any list of edible flowers, zucchini flowers, though prevalent in Italian cooking, just aren’t used enough in our kitchens. A spectacular-looking flower, it is robust and can be stuffed, battered, crumbed, and fried. Zucchinis are in flower from spring to fall and can be found at local markets. They are versatile flowers that can be pickled, fermented as kimchi, or eaten fresh in salads. Here are four ways to use zucchini flowers.
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