Can You Eat Flowers?
Posted by:
amra
June 22nd, 2014
Of course you can. Flowers have been all the rage in the past few years in gourmet restaurants, although they have been part of ancient’s cuisine (or poor boy’s cuisine) much longer. They can be part of the main dish or garnish, but few precautions have to be made:
- Not all flowers are edible, and precaution is necessary. Here is a handy list of edible flowers
- Avoid flowers that may have been sprayed with an insecticide, fungicide or herbicide
If you would like to play it safe, start with squash blossoms which are just coming to our local Farmers Markets, since they are awesome. These recipes are totally worth trying. If you do not have time to cook go try them at Hugo’s on Westheimer
My favorite dilemma is: “Can you eat roses?” When I was little girl my grandma used to make rose syrup, and to this day I think it was the most mouthwatering drink I had in life: Ice cold and with most awesome scent… but I don’t really remember eating any roses. Apparently, all roses are edible (alas, not the roses coming from your favorite florist because ours have been raised for their good looks, not the great taste). Since roses are some distant cousin of apples, it might not be a bad idea to sprinkle some rose leafs in that salad.
And if you are reading this and thinking: “I… never…” keep in mind the Broccoli crown is technically a flower.
Happy summer munching
