Flowers With Flavour

Plants that look good and taste great too make a double contribution to the garden.

To brighten up simple salads, shop-bought herbal teas, cakes and the same old jam, you need look no further than the garden for inspiration.

Gardening Which? magazine has put plants to the test to find out which ones cross-over from the garden to the dining table.

Most cooks have heard of flowery favourites such as saffron, camomile tea and elderflower cordial, but there are over 100 different plants in the UK that have edible flowers.

Gardening Which? tested 37 varieties of plants renowned for their edible flowers that would also make worthy additions to the garden. Each variety of plant was tested for its appearance, size and ornamental value and tasted at the Gardening Which? test site.

Before using the flowers, remove each petal and cut off the bitter white ‘heel’ at their bases. In most cases, only the petals are edible, not the centre of the flower.

Nasturtium
The ‘Alaska Salmon Orange’ variety is pleasantly peppery, so ideal to add to salads or steep to flavour oil and vinegar.

Basil
Use the flowers of the ‘Lemon’ variety as you would the leaves - in pasta dishes or salads for a zesty flavour.

Pink
With a sweet, clove-like taste, the pinks plants have bright and attractive petals ideal for decorating cakes, puddings, fruit salads and ice creams - and make lovely pot plants.

Sweet Rocket
With fragrant, purple flowers, sweet rocket is mild enough to both add to both salads and to decorate desserts. It is a robust plant well worth a place in the perennial border too.

Pot marigold
Yellower varieties of pot marigold will give saffron-like colour to rice or soup, while the ‘Coffee Cream’ is good for adding to savoury dishes.

Violet
The testers’ favourite, ‘Brush Stokes’ has small crimson, yellow and white flowers - they’re excellent for decoration as they look pretty but won’t interfere with any other flavours. Alternatively dry violets to flavour tea.

“Keen cooks and gardeners alike have got used to popping out to their garden to get some mint or thyme to add to their dinner, but everyone should consider adding flowers to their ingredients both for flavouring and decoration,” suggests Ceri Thomas, Editor, Gardening Which? magazine.

“It was great to see so many varieties in our tests that successfully cross over from beautiful in the borders to tasty on the dining room table – I’ll definitely be adding a bit of zest to my tea from now on!”

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