As our thirst for growing our own food continues to bloom, the icing on the cake is the use of edible flowers. Botanical Stylist Carolyn Dunster has ideas and recipes to inspire you
Edible flowers are more popular than ever, whether for topping your fairy cakes, adding flourish to your floral syrups, or bringing a splash of colour to a salad. Carolyn Dunster has ideas to fill your kitchen, and your food, with the beauty and flavour of flowers.
Preserve and conserve
There are myriad ways to incorporate edible flowers into everyday dishes and the key is to experiment with their different flavours, tastes, and textures. It is possible to preserve and conserve garden-grown edible flowers following the same methods as fruits and vegetables, and use them for making syrups, jams, and pickles.
Floral syrups
Flower syrups form the basis of many floral recipes. They are a way of bottling the fragrance of a flower – not unlike making perfume – and provide a means of converting the original scent into a taste. Rather than distilling the natural essential oils, done through steam extraction in perfume production, it is possible to capture the scent by steeping flowers in a warm sugar syrup. Pick flowers at their peak, when they have had the warmth of the sun on them and will be most strongly scented, to provide the best results. Once bottled, flower syrups will keep for a year.
As a guide these are the quantities you will need:
Elderflower syrup: tenheads of elderflower for each cup of water
Violet syrup: three cups of sweet violet flowers for each cup of water
Lilac syrup: two cups of lilac florets for each cup of water
Rose syrup: two cups of rose petals for each cup of water
Lavender syrup: threetbsp of lavender flowers for each cup of water
How to make:
Make your syrup using equal parts sugar and water ie one cup of water and one cup of sugar and bring to a simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup starts to thicken
Remove from the heat and add your flowers making sure they are all covered in the syrup
Allow to cool overnight
Decant into sterilised bottles or jars and seal
Strain if you want a clear coloured syrup or leave in some petals for a pretty effect
Label and store in a cool dark place. Once open keep refrigerated
Floral jams
To make a few pots of floral jam you will need:
Five handfuls of freshly picked, scented flower heads or petals of your choice - best results are obtained from jasmine, roses, dianthus, lavender, violets, and lilac
460g (two cups) preserving sugar or granulated sugar
Juice from two lemons
750 ml (25½ fl oz) cold water
Sterilised jam jars
How to make:
Wash your flowers or petals by dipping them in a bowl of cold water and carefully pat dry with a soft tea cloth or absorbent kitchen paper
Put the flowers in a bowl and sprinkle with half the sugar and the lemon juice
Cover and leave to rest for a minimum of two hours but ideally overnight
Bring the water to a boil over medium heat
Add the remaining sugar and lemon and simmer gently until the sugar has dissolved
Add your flowers in small amounts and stir very gently
Simmer gently for 20 minutes
Bring to the boil again until the setting point is reached. Your mixture will start to thicken
Do not be alarmed if your flowers turn brown. For jams It is the flavour that counts, and this will be released into the hot mixture
Leave to settle for a few minutes and then spoon into your jar
Seal immediately and store in a cold place
Use within six weeks
Floral honey
Unflavoured, clear runny honeys will take on the flavours of scented flowers.
How to make:
Pour a jar of runny honey into a small jug
place a layer of freshly picked scented flower petals in the bottom of the original jar
Pour a small amount of honey back in and continue to layer until the jar is full
Floral cordials
To make a floral cordial of your choice, use a handful of freshly picked, scented petals or flowers. Honeysuckle, lilac, hibiscus, elderflower, rose, or jasmine all make delicious, refreshing cordials.
How to make:
Put the petals in a large bowl with 900g (4½ cups) granulated sugar, a sliced lemon and two litres (3.5 pints) of still mineral water
Cover with a clean cloth and leave to infuse for 24 hours, stirring occasionally
Strain the liquid and decant into clean glass bottles
Seal and refrigerate
If you want to serve as a long drink dilute with sparkling or still water.
Keep some bottles aside for using in jellies, cocktails, and sweet batters
Teas and tisanes
You can make floral and herbal teas and tisanes from any edible flowers, herbs, and foliage.
How to make:
Pour hot, boiled water over flowers, leaves or seeds to release their taste and aroma. This is the best way to capture any nutritional benefits
Judge quantities according to taste, but generally a small handful of petals or seeds or one or two leaves is enough for one person. If making a pot, increase the amounts. Strain any liquid before drinking
You can also flavour black or green tea leaves by layering them in a sealed container with perfumed flowers or foliage of your choice
Allow a few days for the tea leaves to take on the flavour
Flower and herbal flavoured waters and unsweetened juices
Although rose water will be the first floral water to spring to mind, you can make any kind of floral or herbal water with scented edible flowers or herbs. Flavoured waters can also be used in sweet or savoury batters, dressings and marinades, or mixed with icing sugar to drizzle over fruit salads or as frosting for cakes.
Follow these instructions and substitute the rose petals for others of your choice:
How to make:
Add a handful of clean rose petals to a saucepan
Just cover the petals with mineral water
Place the pan on the stove on low heat
Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer for 30–45 minutes
Do not allow it to boil
Simmer until the petals lose their colour
Leave your rose water to cool completely
Strain and pour into sterilised glass bottles
Keep in the fridge until use
Flavoured alcoholic drinks
Creating tasty alcoholic drinks is an effective option with edible flowers.
How to make:
Choose a clear, unflavoured alcohol such as gin or vodka: about 250ml (one cup) to 30g (one cup) of edible petals
Place the petals in a sterilized glass jar and cover with the alcohol
Leave to macerate in the fridge for a week and then strain into a sterilized bottle
Use for cocktails or dilute for long drinks
Floral sugar
To create a floral sugar, use perfumed flowers such as beebalm, lilac, or lavender, herbs such as rosemary, mint, hyssop, lemon balm or sweet cicely, or scented foliage such as pelargonium or myrtle leaves.
How to make:
Chop leaves as finely as possible removing any hard stalks from the leaves. You will need one tablespoon of chopped ingredients to 225g (1¼ cups) of caster sugar
You can combine these in a pestle and mortar crushing the petals or leaves to release their scent or you can do this in a liquidizer or spice grinder which will result in a soft powdery sugar but is the best way to colour the sugar uniformly if this is the result you are after
Decant into a clear jam jar and shake well. The sugar will gradually take on the flavour of your flowers, becoming stronger over time as the natural oils disperse
Floral sugar will keep for about six months although the colour will gradually fade
Floral and herbal salt
Make floral or herbal salts to use on dishes and in recipes in place of ordinary salt – the brightly coloured petals of cornflowers, French marigolds or clover will add some real zing to a plate of fried potatoes or scrambled egg.
How to make:
To flavour salt, use herb flowers: thyme, oregano, sage, coriander and tarragon to imbue the salt with their flavour
Salt will preserve the flower colours and you can pick them out of the salt if you want to use more flowers than salt in dressings or marinades
Just add a new batch of flowers to the original salt. It is better to use dried flower petals rather than fresh to keep salt moisture free
Pack in an airtight jar between layers of sea salt or rock salt
Pickles
Pickles are a great way of using gluts of vegetables and make perfect gifts at Christmas or for birthdays throughout the year, but you can also pickle edible vegetable flowers such as fennel, or herb flowers.
How to make:
Combine 300ml (11 fl oz) white wine vinegar, 50g (1/2 cup) caster sugar a pinch of caraway seeds or fennel seeds and ¼ tsp of rock salt
Mix well and add a small handful of edible herb or vegetable flowers – borage, broad bean, rocket, celery, dill, fennel and parsley flowers all work well here
Chill for at least 40 minutes to pickle
The pickle will keep in the fridge for a couple of days
You can use it to dress fish and chicken dishes or whisk four tbsp of olive oil into the pickle liquid to make a salad dressing.
Vinegars
To make a floral vinegar you will need 500ml (17 fl oz) white wine vinegar, a handful of freshly picked scented edible flowers for a sweet vinegar, or herb flowers for a sharp vinegar, a sterilised jar or bottle with a lid for sealing.
How to make:
Gently warm the vinegar over a low heat, add your flowers to the jar or bottle
Pour the vinegar over the flowers and seal immediately. Leave for a week to infuse and then strain into another clean bottle
Use in dressings and marinades
Oils
To make a herbal oil, use 500ml (17 fl oz) of light vegetable oil as a carrier. Avoid using nut oils, or even olive oil, as they already have their own distinctive flavour.
How to make:
Stand several stems of flowering herbs in a bottle or jar and simply pour the oil over the top
Allow a week for the flavour to infuse
Salads
Mixed flower garden salads or green leaf salads topped with edible flowers are the best entry point for eating freshly picked flowers and it is the easiest way to introduce the idea to anyone who is uncertain – the beauty of the plate will win them over.
How to make:
Avoid using sweetly scented blooms and stick to aromatic herb flowers and mix with vibrant edible flowers such as snapdragons, fuchsias, busy lizzies and begonias that tend to be blander in taste and more reminiscent of lettuce
It is the textures and freshness that count in a delicious salad. For a kick of flavour use allium or chive florets, or garlic, mustard or chive flowers and bring in some foliage such as nasturtium or dandelion leaves for some peppery undertones
Crystallised or frosted flowers
This is the prettiest way to decorate cakes, cookies and desserts for a special occasion. Choose scented flowers for the best results: lavender heads, small roses and rose petals, violets and dianthus. The sugar coating will preserve the flowers for several months.
How to make:
You will need one egg white whisked until light and fluffy
Approximately 400g (two cups) caster sugar
Two handfuls of edible flower petals and/or small edible flower heads
Use a small paintbrush to coat the flowers and petals back and front with the egg white. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the flowers and place them on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Leave them to dry overnight. Once they are hard store in an airtight container
Ice cubes and lollies
Making ice cubes and lollies is another way to preserve edible flowers if you want to use them at a later stage. These can be added to soups, stocks and broths as required. Alternatively use them immediately in cold drinks for a visual effect.
How to make:
Simply place small flower heads or petals in an ice tray and half fill with cold water
Freeze, and when ice begins to form, fill the tray up to the top. This keeps the flowers fixed in the centre of the cube
Use the same method for making lollies with edible flowers in them.
Fill a lolly mould a quarter of the way with diluted syrup or cordial and add flowers
Freeze and repeat
Garnishes
Finally, for any beautiful garden-grown edible flowers that don’t have a strong enough flavour to earn their place as a single note ingredient, use them as garnishes. Think of your serving platters as alternative vases for arranging food and flowers together to create eye-catching displays that will instantly make everything look a hundred times more appetising.
Image credits: Carolyn Dunster, Joanna Yee, Nicholas Hodgson
Look out for Carolyn Dunster and Mark Diacono giving talks at RHS Shows
About the author - Carolyn Dunster
Carolyn Dunster is a botanical stylist, planting designer and garden writer. She studied at London's Inchbald Garden Design School and trained with florist Jane Packer. She exhibits at garden and flower festivals around the UK and writes widely about plants.
The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.
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