One thing people love about going out to eat their meals is the presentation of their food. Many of us like to eat meals that look nice and are pretty. Adding edible flowers to your food can dress it up in a way that other things cannot. This can be especially great for children. Studies show that kids love colorful food. Kids like it when their meals include six different colors and at seven food components. Adults are less picky and only need about three of each.
7 Tips to Improve Your Meals with Edible Flowers:
- Buy them when you want to use them. If you see some pretty edible flowers at the store, buy them if you think you are going to use them right away. They can be kept in your fridge for a few days (the most) if you keep them in a zip lock bag but no longer than that. These are not things that you can buy for a special event you know you have coming up in several months. If you can use them the same day, that is the best thing you can do.
- Make fun drinks with frozen edible flowers. You can use the edible flowers later though. Freeze them in ice cubes and then use them in beverages. These can also add a touch of flavor and fun to punches and other party concoctions.
- The petals are the best part. Make sure you remove the the stamen and the pistils before adding your edible flowers to your dishes. Taste some of the petal to make sure you are putting in the right part. The white part of the stem is often very bitter so be careful about getting that in your cooking.
- Taste your flowers before adding them to your cooking! You may have tasted the kind of flower before but it is worth it to do yourself a taste test before you add them to your culinary creations just to make sure you are adding the right flavor that will not overwhelm or clash with the dish. Some pack quite the taste punch so be careful with how much you add. Doing a taste test before you cook can help prevent some overly spicy dishes.
- Take care when rinsing your edible flowers. Like all produce and specialty produce, edible blossoms need to be rinsed off well before you add them to your cooking. Rinse your edible flowers and then soak them in ice water for about 30 seconds to one minute. It is really important that you spend some time drying them afterwards or they will become soggy and no one likes that.
- Let your imagination run wild! With edible flowers, your are only limited by your imagination and tastes. You can add them to virtually any meal and make it special. They make great additions to soups, deserts, salads, anything you like to serve your family can be improved or just made more fun to look at with flowers. Candied flowers can make amazingly pretty additions to cakes or cookies. What says romance more than a crystalized rose? Not much.
- Beware of pesticides.andnbsp;You need to be careful about where you get your edible flowers. These are not to be purchased at a florist or picked from a park. Some people do grow their own but this is a lot more challenging than people let on. It is is very cost effective to buy them at the same place you get your other specialty produce. You want to add flavor and fun to your meals, not chemicals.
Edible flowers can do a lot more than make your dishes look pretty. There are over 100 edible flowers around and they all have their own unique taste and texture. This means you can really have a lot of fun coming up with new meals or changing up some family favorites that you make all of the time. Adding these to your dishes can also be a great way to get the whole family interested in cooking and botany. Get your kids involved in picking, tasting and cooking with your edible flowers for a fun family activity.
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