The gourmet garden: which petals to serve?

The gourmet flower

The good season gives us wonderful and tasteful flowers.

Yes, we are so used to think about flowers in gardens and courtyards that we do not realize we eat edible flowers every day: zucchini flowers, cappers and artichokes are just few examples.

There are many others, less known, but as tasteful as the former ones. Which are they? Let’s see some together

Calendula

Cooked or raw the marigold is characterized by an intense flavour very alike to saffron.

Also the yellow-orange colour is like the spice’s one, and it is perfect to bring a touch of liveliness to any meal, from the starters to the cake. You can grow it in an easy and fun way through kit semina and taste it later along with carrots for delightful cakes.

Nasturtium

Inside kit semina you can find also nasturtium seeds, this plant’s blooming period goes from June to October.

During this lap of time it will be possible to utilize its flowers (and leaves) to dress spring salads, to make herb-based sauces and desserts.

Moreover if you try a slice of homemade bread with some spread butter and “seasoned” with some minced nasturtium leaves, you will immediately adore the chilly-spiced flavour.

Rose

How could we forget about rose, one of the most known edible flowers?

At the beginning its petals were only used as decoration for cakes and desserts, ignoring, however that the rose can become also an outright ingredient. Jellies, jams and cakes’ stuffing are some of the sweet implementations of this flower, which can also be found also in recipes for first and second meals (meats in particular).

Begonia

Have you ever tasted Begonia’s ice cream?

The slightly bitter after taste, very likely to lemon’s one, it’s perfect to clean and refresh your mouth after a particularly heavy lunch.

If otherwise your concern is the aperitif then you should get some tonic water, some begonia’s petals and some peppermint leaves, a light mojito: fresh and regenerating will be ready to serve.

Geranium

The variety most implemented into the kitchen is with no doubt the scented geranium, a versatile flower useful in the preparation of several spirits and punches, but also for spoon-desserts and dry confectionary.

Talking about desserts, geranium is handy also to flavour icing sugar, fundamental ingredient of meringues, mousse and creams.

Credits: Cristina, Christian Guthier, T.Kiya, Theryn Fleming, Zoë, Maja Dumat