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If everything has been clear with dill and parsley for a long time, then the daisy and nasturtium salad will become the highlight of the program on your table.
Plants for food
The plant is rich in vitamin C, proteins, minerals, especially iron. The orange flowers of nasturtium have a pleasant, pungent scent and a light peppery flavor, which in the last century Europeans considered to whet the appetite. The French were the first to decide to use nasturtium in the kitchen. Until now, in France, nasturtium flowers are mixed with salads to add spice. Large, unripe seeds, shaped like a shriveled nut, are boiled in vinegar to replace capers. It is a great spicy seasoning for fish or meat. Pickled nasturtium seeds are also added to fish salads, vegetable dishes, hot sauces and mayonnaise. Nasturtium is very popular in England and South America.
Dried and powdered nasturtium flowers and leaves are an excellent seasoning for first and second courses. Dried flowers are added to house wines; aromatic tea is made from them. The most popular nasturtium dish is the savory salad (see recipe below).
How to grow: An annual plant, very diverse in shape – there are dwarf, climbing and creeping varieties. Grow well on light poor soil in the sun or in light partial shade. Nasturtium blooms from June to October. Sowing – in May.
When adding flowers to any dish, you must be sure that the plant is environmentally friendly, not treated with pesticides and other chemical compounds. Therefore, it is best if you grow flowers on your own plot – fortunately, most of them are unpretentious and easy to grow.
Spicy salad of nasturtium and green onions
You will need:
- 200 g of flowers and leaves of nasturtium
- 200 g green onions
- Vegetable oil (sour cream)
The flowers and leaves of the plant are cut, mixed with chopped green onions (1: 1), and then seasoned with vegetable oil or sour cream.
Nasturtium flower paste for sandwiches
You will need:
- 100 g nasturtium flowers
- 2 garlic cloves
- Mayonnaise
Grind the nasturtium petals with garlic until they are pasty, season with salt and lightly season with mayonnaise.
Cucumber herb (borage, borage, borage)
This plant is so named because of its scent reminiscent of fresh cucumbers. Borage leaves and shoots contain vitamins C and A, potassium salts, sugar, fatty acids, carotenes, essential oils, resinous substances. The use of cucumber herb restores strength, normalizes the work of the heart. Young leaves are added to salads, vinaigrette, okroshka, as well as soups before the end of cooking. The taste of cucumber herb goes especially well with cabbage and cucumbers.
Star-shaped cornflower blue flowers are used in punch, lemonade, sorbet, cold soups, cheese and curd casseroles and cakes, and gin-based cocktails. In addition, a soothing tea is brewed from them and added to wine, which will acquire an original, slightly tart aroma.
How to grow: Annual plant, honey plant, sowing before winter or early spring. Unpretentious, not afraid of cold and drought. It reproduces easily by self-seeding.
In the Middle Ages, participants in knightly tournaments went to battle, drinking tea from cucumber herb and decorating themselves with blue flowers. And the soldiers of Ancient Rome during the campaigns were added to the diet of cucumber herb to strengthen the spirit.
Cucumber and Bell Pepper Salad
You will need:
- 300 g cucumber leaves
- 300 g sweet pepper
- 300 g sauerkraut
- vegetable oil
Combine the washed finely chopped cucumber herb with slices of sweet pepper, add the cabbage and season with vegetable oil.
Cucumber and tomato salad with nuts
You will need:
- 100 g cucumber leaves, chopped
- 200 g tomatoes
- 5 chopped walnuts
Mix everything, fill with vegetable oil.
Beetroot with cucumber grass
You will need:
- 0,5 l beet broth
- 2-3 boiled potatoes
- 1 boiled beets
- 200 g chopped cucumber herb
- other greens (to taste)
- sour cream, salt
Cut vegetables and herbs, pour over beet broth (you can use kvass – then you get okroshka), season with sour cream. Boiled eggs and meat can be added to the beetroot.
Rinse the flowers gently in water and pat dry on paper towels.
To make a cake decoration, lightly beat the egg white and completely cover the petals or buds with a fine brush. Then sprinkle with powdered sugar through a strainer. With the help of food coloring, you can pre-color the icing sugar to match the flower. Shake off excess powder and dry the flowers completely: the petals can be dried on paper napkins, larger flowers (for example, roses or lilies) must be tied with thread or thin wire around the stem and hung down with the flower so that they do not wrinkle.
You can also freeze rose petals, pansies and violets in ice cubes for cocktails.
The light nutty flavor of these flowers gives originality to mixed green salads, pasta and rice dishes.
Pink and white daisy petals can be used as decoration, sprinkled on salads, open sandwiches, boiled vegetables before serving.
How to grow: This biennial plant grows in any soil, sun and shade. Blooms from May to June. Propagated by dividing the bush or sowing seeds in May-July. But you can do without special procedures, since daisies reproduce well by self-seeding.
Day-lily
In China, the daylily has been eaten for a long time, and everyone uses it: juicy greens, roots and flowers. Young leaves have a sweetish taste and go well with other greens. Therefore, they are added to vegetable salads. The fleshy roots of the daylily are eaten raw, boiled, or stewed. The main delicacy is daylily flowers. Green buds are pickled in the same way as cucumbers, to which they taste very similar. Daylily caviar (see recipe below) tastes very much like eggplant, but is much more piquant and richer in taste.
How to grow: Absolutely any land is suitable for this perennial; it grows best in the sun. The daylily is indispensable for lazy and busy gardeners, as it can easily do without your help. If you pinch off several rhizomes from the bush, kill two birds with one stone – feed yourself and stimulate further growth of the bush. When creating a collection of daylilies, keep in mind that they should be selected not only by the timing of flowering, but also by the tier. Each flower blooms for only one day.
Chinese doctors advise patients with cirrhosis or hepatitis to include daylily greens in their daily diet (in combination with chicken broth), supposedly very good for the liver.
Daylily Caviar
You will need:
- 500 g freshly blossomed flowers
- 3 bulbs
- 3 Art. l. vegetable oil
- Celery, lovage and spices
Pass fresh flowers through a meat grinder, mix with fried onions, adding vegetable oil and spices. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Caviar can be rolled up in jars.
Daylily rhizome and green onion salad
- 200 g daylily rhizome
- 100 g green onions
- 1 hard-boiled egg
- Mayonnaise
Daylily rhizome (fresh or boiled), peel, chop and mix with green onions and hard-boiled egg. Mayonnaise can be used as a dressing.
Daylily leaves and oranges salad
- 200 g daylily leaves
- 1 апельсин
- Thyme
- Vegetable oil
Cut the daylily leaves and orange slices and mix. Add some greens of fresh thyme. Sprinkle the salad with lemon juice and season with vegetable oil.
Marigold
The leaves of different types of marigolds are used as a spice in the USA and Latin America. They make a good spicy addition to salads.
The petals contain carotene and a whole complex of vitamins. In our markets, you can find a bright yellow powder made from ground and dried marigolds, which are sometimes passed off as saffron. And in the markets of the Caucasus, they sell both flower powder and heaps of dry inflorescences, which are added for color and smell to pilaf, satsivi, sauces and soups. In cooking, this spice is often called “Imeretian saffron”.
How to grow: An annual thermophilic plant that is not demanding on soil and moisture. Prefers open, sunny places, but grows in partial shade. Marigolds bloom from June to frost.
You need:
- 2 tbsp. l. marigold petals
- 4 eggs
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g flour
- 4 st. l. oils
Whisk the whites into a foam and add two tablespoons of fresh petals, mashed with sugar. Grind the butter until fluffy, gradually adding marigolds with sugar and yolks. Mix the resulting mass with flour, carefully put the proteins on top and mix. Put the finished dough on a baking sheet, bake until golden brown and cut into pieces.
Marigold (calendula)
Small petals of golden-orange color with a strong spicy aroma are added to meat and fish soups, pasta and rice dishes, as well as vegetable salads.
How to grow: Unpretentious annual. Any land, moderate watering, partial shade or sun.
Blooms from July until frost.
Sowing – September-October or March-April.
Pansies (viola)
For its sweetish fresh taste and decorativeness, viola flowers are firmly entrenched on the dessert table. They are added to fruit salads, used to decorate cakes and ice cream. Freeze in ice cubes and sugar.
How to grow: A perennial that is grown as an annual or biennial on any garden soil. Grows in full sun or partial shade. Blooms from spring to autumn.
Chrysanthemum shisu
Very popular in Japan. The leaves contain beta-carotene, provitamin A, vitamin C, and a number of useful mineral elements.
Leaves and young shoots with a piquant smell and taste are used for food. They are added to salads, first and second courses, sandwiches.
How to grow: An annual, early maturing plant that can be harvested within a month after sowing. Blooming chrysanthemum is very decorative and looks great in a flower bed.
Fragrant geranium (pelargonium)
There are many varieties of scented geranium, each with its own unique aroma. There are pelargoniums with the scent of rose, lemon, mint, orange, apple and even nutmeg. Scented leaves are added to a wide variety of dishes along with other aromatic herbs. You can sprinkle flowers and petals on desserts, use them in soft drinks and cocktails, freeze them in ice cubes or flavor baked apples and pears with them. Fresh leaves can be infused with milk, cream and syrups for dessert dishes, brewed like tea.
How to grow: This houseplant can also be grown in the garden. The main secrets of success are direct sunlight, moderate watering and spring pruning (if geranium grows on a window, cut it in autumn). Geranium is propagated either by stem cuttings or by seeds.
Lavender
used as a spice – they are added to salads, drinks, meat and vegetable dishes, although this, of course, is not for everybody. You can throw a couple of flowers into a glass of champagne, decorate with them chocolate desserts, cakes and ice cream.
How to grow:Lavender is a fairly hardy perennial shrub. Lavender is propagated by dividing the rhizomes in spring or autumn. And also by layering or cuttings, which take root rather quickly. Before wintering, it is better to cut and cover the lavender twigs, just in case.
Roses
Culinary experts of Central Asia have been using roses in cooking for hundreds of years. The petals are harvested at sunrise, processed right on the spot so as not to lose their precious aroma. Then fragrant rose water is used in exotic jams, which are served between sips of strong coffee or simply diluted with cold water and get a refreshing drink. Everyone knows rose jam. Rose petals, along with crushed nuts and mild cheese, can be added to a vegetable salad. Fragrant petals will give the fruit salad a raspberry or honey scent. When ground, they are used to season the sauce – roses give it an additional color and taste. Also, these flowers can add a special flavor to ice cream and drinks. Finally, the rose petals can be cut into thin slices and garnished with spaghetti. If you are inspired by our recipes, keep in mind that it is better to remove the white parts at the base of the petals – they usually taste bitter.
How to grow: This thermophilic plant needs bright sun and high humidity: roses should be sprayed and watered abundantly as often as possible. In the fall, the bushes growing in the garden are cut and covered, protecting them from frost. in winter they need additional lighting.
Rose petal dessert
You will need:
- 50 g fresh rose petals
- 0,75 l cream
- 75 g sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 protein
- 25 g gelatin
Boil 0,5 l of cream with rose petals for 15 minutes. Strain the resulting liquid through a sieve. While it is cooling, beat the yolks with the remaining cream and mix with the boiled ones. Put the mixture on low heat and keep until it rises. Remove from heat, add dissolved gelatin and whipped whites, pour into sockets and put out in the cold.
Pink liquor
You will need:
- 125g rose petals
- 0,5 liters of water
- 0,5 l brandy
- 250 g sugar
- 1 / 2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pour rose petals with water and leave for two days in a sealed container. Then strain the liquid through cheesecloth and add brandy. Add cinnamon, sugar and leave for 14 days. Filter, pour into small bottles.
Leading European restaurateurs decided to pamper their visitors with new culinary delights and began to introduce fresh flowers into their dishes.
In the best restaurants in Paris, London and Barcelona, you can now try such unusual dishes as veal with daisy sauce, lobster with nasturtium and crabs with boiled rose. Flowers serve as a base for sauces and gravies, an ingredient in salads, fish and meat dishes.
According to experts, flowers open up new opportunities for modern culinary, which seeks original and unusual tastes, colors and smells. If earlier flowers served as decoration of restaurants, now they adorn the menu.