A few years back, I was a member of a CSA share that regularly included edible flowers in with the lettuces, tomatoes, and zucchini. While I was charmed by the presence of these flowers, I was always flummoxed when it came to actually using them. If only Miche Bacher’s new book, Cooking with Flowers had been around then. I would have done so much more with those tasty blooms.
Organized by variety of flower, each section begins with details about the particular blossom being featured. Then come the recipes, which manage to straddle the line between being appealing new and still familiar enough to get the old salivary glands working (for instances, how about a scoop of Lilac Sorbet).
As a preserver, I’m particularly interested in the ways that flowers can enhance my preserves. I often used dried lavender buds in jams and jellies to add a floral note, but now I’m contemplating the ways that lilac, nasturtium, and rose petals could improve or add interest to my basic sweet spreads. Makes the mind boggle a little, doesn’t it?
This recipe for Dandelion Jam was originally intended to go in the book, but because of space constraints, was cut from the volume. Eric from Quirk knows I happen to have a thing for jams and so asked if I’d like to feature the recipe here. I said yes and here we are.
I’ve not made this jam, but having read the recipe, I do believe it should work. For a preserve like this one, cooking it up to 220 degrees F will improve your chances of getting a good set from it. Also, do note that while it instructs you to put the finished jam in sterilized jars and seal them, it also requires that you store them in the fridge. This is because the jam doesn’t have the proper acidity for boiling water bath canning.
Dandelion Jam
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- 4 cups dandelion blossoms
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 1 3/4-ounce package powdered fruit pectin
- 5 1/2 cups sugar
Instructions
- Pour the water into a large saucepan and add dandelion blossoms. Bring mixture to a boil and continue boiling for about 5 minutes, or until water turns yellow.
- Pour the resulting tea through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing the flowers to get as much of the color and flavor through the strainer as you can. Discard blossoms.
- Place 3 cups of the tea in a medium saucepan and add lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil. Stir in the sugar and boil for 10 minutes, or until sugar dissolves.
- Pour mixture into sterilized half-pint jars and seal. Store refrigerated for up to 2 months.
I spent a week working with a crew of 60 on a beautiful homestead in Tennesee. I was on garden crew and on the third day, we made individual salads for lunch for everyone there – complete with pansies! I had no idea.
I have heard about these types of flowers, but I have never tried them before, not even one of them. I guess it’s time for me to try one.
My first flower was a pansy as a young kid. My Mom taught me the love of gardening and growing plants and flowers that are edible.
I tasted a wonderful dish in Italy made with sauteed zucchini blossoms. Have been using them ever since. A great way to avoid the “can’t even give them away” zucchini overload in late summer.
Wow this book looks amazing and I think it would be so much fun with my daughters. Currently our garden has an abundance of squash flowers in it so I’m getting ready to try some recipes with those for the first time. However, I have never tried edible flowers before so this is a whole new culinary world for our house.
I am lucky to have a fabulous farmer’s market walking distance from my home. My favorite goat cheese purveyour uses organic flowers in and on her delicious herb cheeses – swoon!
When I was a kid, my grandmother told me that you could eat nasturtiums. I was so excited to eat a flower that she started growing them in her yard. When I would come over after school she would make me a snack and there would always be a nasturtium flower or two. Lovely!
How wonderful! Just what I’ve been looking for. I baked a Kentucky Derby Hat cake last week for a Derby party and I wished I knew what real flowers to use for decoration.
I knew pansies were edible because I had them on a cupcake at a fancy hotel dinner. They were beautiful! I had to use fake flowers on the Derby Hat cake this year but next year, I’II be better prepared.
When I was a newly wed my husband and I lived with my brother for a few months. One day my sister-in-law made a salad garnished with nasturtiums. It seemed so peculiar to me that flowers could be eaten. But it was delicious and slightly peppery and I’ve been obsessed with edible flowers since! In fact my 3 year old helped me plant some calendula seeds today, and by the end of the month we will be planting nasturtiums ourselves. Not enough dandelions in the yard this year to make ice pops with like we did last year.
I don’t know when the first time I ate a flower that wasn’t part of a dare. But yesterday I spotted the most amazing lilac bush in a friend’s back yard. Down a slope. Covered with blackberry brambles. 15 minutes, a broom handle, and five snips later, I have a handful of the most luscious lilacs I’ve ever seen. The smell made me realize why so many people buy crappy lilac air freshener. I wanted to have that smell infused into a home. Then? I took a bite.
When I was in 5th grade we had a Pioneer week at my school with different activities themed around the new settlers. We ended up making dandelion muffins and they were delicious!
Growing up in the UK we went to Greece on holiday and the good thing about the trips was the food – we rarely stuck with ‘tourist’ fare and went with the locals. I remember having stuffed zucchini blossoms and loving them. I was amazed you could cook flowers!
I have eaten sugared pansies from a cake and I love making Lemon-Lavender cookies.
At recess, my friends and I would play “survival” which included eating these tiny yellow flowers no bigger than a sunflower seed. I remember thinking they were rather tasty. Who knows if they were actually edible!
Thanks for the post about using flowers in cooking. It has me inspired!
lavender in jam, my favorite being red pear and lavender.
Oh this book looks lovely. Nothing better for light reading in the evening than a good cookbook. I have started nasturtiom seeds in many colors for a beautiful yard but also to surprise my husband in his salad! Rose flavored Turkish delights and lavender sugar cookies are my edible flower trys so far. Both delicious.
I love to put nasturtium in salads. Lately I have been making Italian cream soda’s with rose syrup. Yum!
I used to eat sugared violets as a kid. Recently I reconnected with those childhood roots and made violet syrup, candied violets and violet jelly. Didn’t even know this book existed! Would love to create new edible floral treats. Thanks!
I remember picking pansies with my mother when I was a little girl and then having tea parties where they were on the cookies. i feed my kids flowers as well….it is agreat memory maker
I’ve made kudzu blossom jelly, it tastes like a mix of grape and blueberry and I love to use lavender in recipes especially brown butter short bread or on goat cheese with honey.
My husband and I had flowers on a cruise at dinner. I thought it was delightful, my husband was not impressed
I love eating flowers! Drinking them too. My favorite is lavender lemonade. Yummy and refreshing! I did make something once that gave me pause though. I added some dried lavender buds to a pound cake batter and then baked it. I anticipated a buttery -floral tasting cake. The taste was indeed lovely, but the appearance left something to be desired. It looked like it was full of mouse droppings! Note to self: next time grind the buds first. Lol!
As a child I loved the smell of nasturtium leaves as well as the flowers, &, when I learned they are safe for people to eat, I tried some & loved their peppery flavour. Still do!
When I was very young, we neighborhood kids would run down the sidewalk by some bushes and stop and dare each other to eat the leaves. I don’t know what the plant was, but it was pretty rebel of me to eat them! And they must have been edible ’cause I’m still here!
As a child I was at my friends house when her mother pulled a pan of roses out of the oven. My eyes had to focus to see that this crazy lady ( or so i thought ) was going to eat flowers !!! Well …. my friend ate some and I wanted to be like her and did so also and guess what they were wonderful. Not sure how they were made but do know she had dipped them in egg whites.
The first time I ever realized that flowers could be incorporated into dishes and not just used as a nice garnish was in 2006 at Sooke Harbour House. We toured the gardens on the property and did a wine tasting as part of The Next Great Chef (a culinary competition which I participated in). They only use ingredients which can be sourced within 100 miles and therefore only purchase produce which can grow on Vancouver Island. Because they are not able to grow lemons on the island the chef at Sooke substitutes begonia petals in recipes calling for lemon. I have grown begonias in my garden ever since! Delicious!
Yum! I was just thinking about making dandelion jam. I made beer-tempura fried dandelion flowers last week–they were a little sweet and crunchy and delicious!
We do a lot of nasturtiums and artichokes here (you all knew artichokes were flowers, right?), onion flowers, sometimes garlic flowers (we usually snip them off just as they bud though), and the occasional viola. One of the most entertaining things we’ve done with herb flowers was putting some rosemary flowers and pink peppercorns in a small bottle of vodka. We let it sit a couple of weeks before using it – mostly over ice, but I imagine it could be mixed into all sorts of things.
I love cooking/baking with flowers! One of my favorite things to make is a calendula pound cake–it looks like a summer afternoon with all the orange flecks in it.
I remember the first time I ate a flower. We were at a farmers market in New Mexico (I want to say Taos, but not sure) and someone was selling salad greens with nasturtium blossoms mixed in. I was so excited about how cool that was (even thought I was 14 and probably is my best not to show it)! It blew my mind a little and opened me up to a world of culinary possibilities.
We ate honeysuckle flowers as kids too. I can still remember the taste 50 years later.
Dandelion jam! What a great idea! I’d love a copy of the book, of course, but the jam recipe MADE my day! Thanks!
I would love to learn to cook with flowers! I have a yard with many violets. It would be fun to harvest them to eat and decorate food.
I’m so intrigued by this cookbook… and I’m definitely trying out that dandelion jam recipe!
The only time that I recall eating a flower is when I would quite young. My siblings and I would always hunt for honeysuckles and eat the sweet part!
Thanks for the giveaway!
The wonderful Herbfarm restaurant in Woodinville, WA offers garden tours before their spectacular meals. The tour guide offers tastes of various edible flowers that will be featured in your meal. It was an incredible experience for me! I’ve had a poster of “Edible Flowers” up in my apartment for years, but not actually eaten many flowers. That little tour really excited my palate and helped me experience the wide range of flavors available in flowers.
That jam sounds really interesting. I have had dandelion greens from my csa box, but I don’t think I have ever tried the flowers!
I had rose ice cream at an Afghan restaurant. Pure heaven! Since then I play with rose water and orange blossom water.
I remember eating dandelions during seventh grade science class. Mrs. Koch took us outside to pick the dandelions and taught us about other plants that were edible. I remember being one of the few students who enjoyed the experience (probably my mother’s influence). Now I let wildflowers grow on my property and am starting to use them as edibles. The book will be amazing help.
I have never done any canning with flowers so this would be a great intro to the use of them
While I was in college, we would get really excited about the spring greens mix at the farmer’s market that had little purple flowers in it.
I’m not sure if I ever ate a flower, but does chewing on bits of grass when I was bored playing little league baseball count? There may be photographic evidence of this, I’m not sure 😉
Anyway, the bits of grass were not something I would recommend, so trying actual flowers with recipes would be cool!
Hmm..the time I ate a flower was when I was around five, my old brother convinced me that buttercup flowers tasted like butter and turn your face yellow. Needless to say, it does not! I have tried lavender and love lavender ice cream and jam!
i picked an ate a wild violet in my new backyard — a lovely surprise. next i need to put some in a salad.
I just finished a batch of dandelion jelly. Violet jelly last week….but this is as far as I have gone with flowers. Would love to do more!
I’ve eaten nasturtium flowers in salads and as a child, used to eat rose petals and suck the nectar out of bluebell flowers. Haven’t eaten a flower in ages now – maybe it’s time to revisit them as a food source. 🙂
Lavender is my favorite flower food. Lavender ice cream, blackberry lavender jam, lavender in herbes de provence….
I think I was in a restaurant where there was a pansy as a garnish. I ate it but wasn’t impressed. I was young, what did I know about flavor?
I’ve eaten violets on petite cupcakes before. I am so curious about this dandelion jam! Thank you so much for the chance to win!
I cannot wait to try the Dandelion Jam! I’ve been looking for more ways to incorporate my “lawn” foods into my diet! Thanks for posting such great stuff!
Annie
Someone gave me a nasturtium out of the garden to eat. It was so beautiful and peppery. Since then I have been hooked on using flowers in cooking. I am having a baby and decided I needed an almost there-but the room is already- still waiting baby project. I made violet jam but no baby yet. I am excited to move onto dandelion jam!