Vegan Food & Living - October 2017

VEGAN FOOD & LIVING OCTOBER 87

EDIBLE FLOWERS

Cornflowers

Cornfl owers have a strong blue colour and spicy-

sweet fl avour. The petals are sold dried in France,

but fresh are always better. Stir into pasta sauces

and serve in salads.

Viola flowers

Viola fl owers combine fragrance with subtle

fl avour and look gorgeous on the plate. All plants

in the viola family are suitable, but I particularly

like the small British native that grows wild in

Scotland, viola tricolour or Heartsease. It is easy

to grow from seed and with luck will self-seed

once established.

Pot marigold petals

Pot marigold petals add a hint of pepper and

nuttiness to food like soups, risotto, tabbouleh

and casseroles, and the bold orange petals make

salads and beetroot dishes look special. They also

look good against the pale green of chilled lettuce

soup. Try making a smoothie bowl scattered

with marigold petals. Using the petals is one way

of adding colour to rice dishes, so they can be

substituted for saff ron.

Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums are widely used in food for their

punchy, peppery taste and dazzling colour. Try a

dish of tofu with lemon juice and sliced avocado,

served on a bed of lettuce with salad dressing and

nasturtium fl owers. As well as salads, try them

chopped and mixed into vegan mayonnaise or

incorporated into a dressing. Use the fl owers

shredded into risotto too.

Other edible flowers

There are lots more edible fl owers and they

include the pale blue chicory or endive,

wild garlic, thyme, chervil, bergamot,

chives, honeysuckle, dandelion, chamomile,

marsh mallow, sweet woodruff , Japanese

chrysanthemum, lavender, garlic chives and

sweet rocket/arugula. My granddaughters help

me sow seeds in spring, including nasturtiums

and pot marigolds. This may be one reason why

they love wandering around the garden picking

edible fl owers and salad herb leaves for a salad,

which they proudly mix and put on the table

with a meal. These dishes can only be made

at a certain time of the year with home-picked

fl owers. That is what gives them their magic and

makes them memorable.

CRYSTALLIZING FLOWERS

The simplest technique for crystallizing fl owers

such as rose petals is to dip them in aquafaba

(the water from tinned legumes like chickpeas),

then sprinkle them with caster sugar. For more

complicated fl owers, hold them by the stalk and

use a paint brush to coat them with aquafaba,

then sprinkle. Leave them to dry for 24-48 hours

on baking parchment. Handle them carefully

as they will be brittle. Store in an

airtight container for up to a week.

VING OCTOBER 87

aking parchment. Handle them carefully

as they will be brittle. Store in an

airtight container for up to a week.

The extract

on pages

86-87 is

taken from

Herbs by

Judith

Hann, photography by

Tamin Jones, published by

Nourish Books. (RRP £20.)

This book contains

non-vegan recipes.

VFL17.EdibleFlowers.indd 87 07/09/2017 16:28