Edible flowers can be added to dishes as garnishes or ingredients, but it’s important to ensure they are actually edible. Chamomile and other flowers are used to make herbal teas, while some edible flowers are made from fruit and marketed as flower baskets.
Edible flowers are simply flowers that can be consumed by humans. Most flowers shouldn’t be eaten by humans, but there are a few that can be added to dishes. The most commonly edible flowers are added as garnishes to appetizers and desserts. In some cases they are incorporated into a dish as an ingredient. Some favorite flowers for bouquets are edible too. Examples include roses, violets and marigolds. Other edible flowers include nasturtiums, bean flowers, and miniature pansies.
When cooking with edible flowers, it is vital to ensure that the flowers are actually the edible variety. While the plant kingdom is large and widely diverse, there are some species that closely resemble each other. Just as it’s always important to make sure mushrooms are edible before ingesting them – especially if the mushrooms have been harvested from the wild – it’s very important to make sure edible flowers are indeed edible before cooking them or using them as side dishes.
There are a number of helpful books and articles online that can help you identify edible flowers from inedible varieties. Another way to ensure that flowers are edible is to buy them from a florist. Another option is to purchase them from a specialist green grocer who sells edible flowers. Recipes calling for these types of flowers often give directions on where to find the flowers and how to identify edible varieties from inedible varieties.
There are some edible flowers that are regularly used to make herbal teas. One of the most common flowers used in tea is chamomile. Chamomile flowers are harvested and dried before being used to make tea or tea blends. It is a caffeine-free drink that many people find helps them relax and fall asleep at night. Other flowers used in teas include lemon verbena and hibiscus.
Some edible flowers are actually made from fruit. In recent years it has become popular to create fruit baskets that are cut and displayed in such a way that they resemble flower baskets. Melon, for example, can be cut into the shape of a daisy. A strawberry or grape can be used to mimic the center of a flower. While these aren’t actually flowers that appear to be edible, they are often marketed as edible flower baskets.
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