Spring Salad With Edible Flowers
The View From Great Island
The prettiest of salads, this glorious celebration of spring makes for the perfect side dish for al fresco feasts under the sun. Simply add a spring lettuce and a sweet onion to a salad bowl and sprinkle a delightful mix of favourite edible flowers: geraniums, honeysuckle, marigold, nasturtium, pansy and rose all work a treat. Sheer joy. Get the recipe.
Avocado Toasts With Chives Blossoms
The Feedfeed
Avocado toast has moved from fashionable to cliched to classic over the course of the last few years. We will always love it by dint of the fact that it is both nutritious and delicious – but never more so than when it looks and tastes as lovely as it does adorned with chive blossom and allium flowers, ideally picked straight from the garden. With a subtly oniony flavour, it’s the perfect way to freshen up your breakfast. Get the recipe.
Tagliolini With Squid And Courgette Flowers
Great Italian Chefs
Courgette flowers may not come with petals to scatter, but they do look showstopping nonetheless and have a long and delicious tradition in Italian cuisine. We adore this recipe from Grazia Soncini, which sings of summer thanks to the delicate baby squid and the fried courgette flowers – plus it’s as simple and quick as befits a truly casual al fresco supper. Get the recipe.
Firni
Olive Magazine
Dina Begum, author of Made in Bangladesh: Recipes and Stories from a Home Kitchen, shares how to make this glorious pudding, which, as she says, is something of a more refined cousin of rice pudding. Its celebratory nature – it is traditionally served at weddings and Eids – is underlined by the scattering of rose petals that top it off so very beautifully. She says, ‘Scented with cardamom and pandan extract, firni is served chilled, scattered with rose petals and pistachios, either in individual portions or in a large sharing dish. I make various versions of this pudding, but this is my favourite when entertaining, as it can be prepared ahead of time and needs to be chilled overnight. The perfume of pandan is matched with the citrussy floral notes of cardamom, and both are delicious with the milk and rice.’ Floral perfection. Get the recipe.
Doogh Ice Lollies
Olive Magazine
Edible flowers tend to work beautifully well with ice cream or lollies, their daintiness and subtle flavours perfect for elevating the cool summer treat. We love this unusual Persian take which comes from Olive Magazine and combines yogurt with mint, honey and rose petals for a salty and tangy taste that is as refreshing as it gets. Get the recipe.
Lemon And Elderflower
BBC Good Food
This gorgeous cake is made for high tea on summer lawns. The delightfully light and delicate elderflower flavour is complemented to perfection by the sweetly strewn fresh edible flowers adorning its top. Ideal for summer birthdays thronged by roses and sountracked by the buzz of gadding winged creatures. Get the recipe.
