Edible flowers are a fantastic way to add colour, flavour and texture to your meals, and are even more satisfying when they are grown in your own garden. If you've read September's issue of Country Living Magazine you'll have noticed that we're not the only ones getting excited about these edible blooms. We grow a variety of edible flowers, fresh salad leaves and herbs in our garden at Holloways, which we use to beautifully adorn our delicious salads in the Glasshouse Café.
Salad with Edible Flowers
Edible flowers have been used in cooking for many years and it is surprising how many flowers growing in our gardens are indeed edible. They can add intriguing flavours as well as for elegant decoration on appetisers, starters, cakes and many other dishes. English Gardener and cook Sarah Raven reveals, “it has become very fashionable to serve flowers at the meal table now, and no mixed salad will look complete without them”. Here’s three of our favourite edible flowers that are perfect to include in salads:
Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus)
Nasturtium in the Holloways garden
Spicy and peppery in flavour, the nasturtium flower will enhance a salad as well as brightening the dish with its yellow, orange or scarlet colour.
Marigold (Calendula officinalis)
Edible Marigold
Marigold are a great edible flower, as once they are established, they will bloom all summer and have a delicious citrus-like flavour.
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Borage in the Holloways’ garden
Borage is a beautiful, blue decorative flower which grows quickly throughout summer. Both the flowers and leaves are versatile and can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes, thanks to its subtle cucumber-like flavour. Also very popular with bees, another great reason to grow this edible plant to benefit your garden.
Glasshouse Summer Special Salad
The Glasshouse Summer Salad with edible flowers
Our Special Summer Salad is one of many recipes to introduce edible flowers and has been very popular in our café this year. Lis and Ann from The Glasshouse Café tell us that the majority of edible flowers are best picked fresh from the garden the day you want to use them, and should then be gently rinsed before consuming.
Gather a selection of young and tender salad leaves, wash and dry before tearing into a bowl. Add several whole nasturtium leaves and toss in vinegar and oil. Take the fresh flowers of marigold and nasturtium, gently pulling them apart, and add the whole heads of borage flowers. Mix the leaves and flowers together, garnishing with a few nasturtium petals and herbs to taste. For this particular recipe we then add halloumi and grilled Mediterranean vegetables.
We hope this article has inspired you to start growing your own edible flowers, and tempted you to come and try ours at The Glasshouse Café.
Holloways herb garden
