Edible Flowers for Beginners | My Favorite Beautiful & Delicious Flowers & How to Use Them!

If you haven't ever experimented with harvesting flowers for your plate and not just your vase, then this video is for you. I'm going to be sharing my top list of edible flowers for beginners, their properties and flavor profiles, how you can incorporate them into dishes to add a little bit of romance into your daily life. If you're new here, I'm Anna Fable. I am a Reiki master practitioner and a gardener and I love using plants for healing of all kinds. So if that interests you, please subscribe and let me know in the comments what your favorite edible flowers are so we can inspire each other. Always be mindful and careful when you're eating anything from your garden, right? There are tons of things both in our gardens and in the wild that are poisonous, very very poisonous, like foxgloves and delphiniums and things like that. So just be mindful, be careful, do a little bit of research before you put anything in the garden into your mouth. So when harvesting any of these flowers, you just want to be sure that they haven't been sprayed with anything. And we are talking about flowers from the garden, so harvesting our own flowers instead of store-bought flowers because you never really know what you're getting. They might be sprayed with chemicals and stuff like that if you're getting, let's say, a bouquet of flowers from supermarkets. And you want to ensure that it's not an area that's frequented by animals. You know, you want to make sure that it's not a part of your garden that your cat might like to use as a litter box or maybe deer like to use as a restroom. Just be really really mindful. You just don't want to have that contamination and those toxicity. So that's just something to be mindful of as well. So you want to be picking flowers that you would feel comfortable putting in a vase. You want things that are healthy and vibrant. You don't want anything that's too dull, that's damaged. Definitely you don't want anything diseased, right? So you want things that, yeah, you'd feel happy to put in a vase in your home. Healthy, thriving plants. Now I have both annuals and perennials on this list. So let's begin with dahlias. So with dahlias, these beautiful flowers, you can actually eat both the flowers, the petals of the flowers, and also the tubers. And the flowers come in tons of different shapes and sizes and colors. I believe the only color that we don't see in a dahlia is the color blue. You get all the rest of the spectrum of color with dahlias. Here we have a Wizard of Oz, a blue bell, that's actually, that's like really beautiful purple, soft lilac on the top, and then like a deep mauve on the bottom. And then this gorgeous Thomas Edison. So we have a lily, we have a pom-pom, and we have a dinner plate dahlia. Although this one's a little small, usually the Thomas Edison's are huge here. So these have protein and fiber and micronutrients like potassium, magnesium, calcium, and B6. There's also been research done into dahlias for their anti-diabetic properties to balance out blood sugar and insulin levels. And they've even created capsules, like dahlia capsules, to help with that. I think some of that work was done in New Zealand, but yeah, always check with your health care provider before you try anything like this at home. Now on to the flavor profile and texture. So the petals themselves are crispy and crunchy, and the flavor is pretty mild, but it can range from sweet to spicy to even a little bit on the piney side. But mostly they're pretty subtle compared to some of the others on this list. And since I mentioned it, the dahlia tubers can range from bitter to quite sweet, so think chestnuts to apples. And they can get sweeter with storage when the fibers convert to fructose, but we're mainly going to be talking about the How to use them in the kitchen. So I saw a recipe for dahlia quesadillas. So they use dahlia tubers for the filling of the quesadilla, and then they sprinkled the dahlia flower petals on top. That looked amazing. I love using the dahlia petals for savory dishes, for things like soups and curries and dolls, dahlia dolls. And the texture is really, really nice on top of like a really hearty, very tenderly cooked stew. Think lots of vegetables that have sort of been bubbling away for a while, and they have that really tender bite to them. Adding a few of these petals on top can add that crunch. We had that the other day, and it was amazing. I think we used the David Howard dahlias for that. Some lovely orangey, peachy colored dahlia petals for that. It was beautiful. And they can sometimes have almost like a carrot-y sort of flavor to it. So topping your autumnal stews now that we're coming into that season with some dahlia petals, I'm thinking like a butternut squash soup with some beautiful dahlia petals on top for a little bit of that crunchiness. Yeah, I think I might try that. Some of the darker flowers. Oh, we have a little friend here. But some of the darker flowers, especially like the Thomas Edison's, I love using on desserts. So chocolate mousse with maybe a little bit of cashew and coconut cream kind of mixed together with a little bit of cacao or chocolate. I used to make this avocado pudding that had like avocados and cacao with some cacao nibs on top. That would be great with a few dahlia petals on top of there. Really, really beautiful. That pairing with chocolate is really, really nice. This bug is so cute. A little one. He looks like a garden fairy. And I find that the darker flowers are a little bit sweeter. I've read this as well. So just, yeah, taking a few of these petals, pulling them off and just sprinkling them onto your plate to add a little bit of magic. Next up, we have nasturtiums. So both the lily pad leaves of the nasturtiums and also the flowers are edible. They're also very easy to start from seed. They have big, chunky seeds. And when you put them in the ground, they kind of germinate as these really beautiful miniature leaves instead of those kind of typical, like the seed leaves. They come up just looking like little miniature nasturtiums. They're very, very fun. And they're great for kids. If you want to get your kids in the garden with you, they're just a very fun one to start. And the fact that they can eat the flowers as well. Kids usually really like that. And these are packed with nutrients, vitamin C, and similar to dahlias, they have calcium, potassium, magnesium. They're rich in antioxidants. They have vitamin B and D. And they're used in herbalism to treat sore throats, coughs and colds, and fungal and bacterial infections as well. So nasturtiums are soft and gentle. Toward the ends of the petal, they have a little bit of a crunch, but generally they're just very soft. And they add a beautiful peppery quality to your dishes. So you can add these to desserts, to sweets. You know, I like to add this to cakes, especially really, really sweet cakes. Like I make a vanilla cake that has a vanilla cinnamon icing and adding that on top, or even in the icing layers in between the cake, just to kind of change up and kind of balance up that sweetness. It also pairs well with a little bit of spice. So if you're having, let's say a carrot cake or something like that, the nasturtium petals would be beautiful. And then I like playing up that kind of peppery quality with some of the more savory dishes. So pairing it with a really warm, spicy curry, that's a great pairing as well. You can also add it to pastas and salads. I do that all the time. We had that just the other night and it was incredible. And I've also made nasturtium teas, which are just beautiful and delicious. Next up, we have pansies and violas. These are very popular edible flowers. They're very often used to decorate cakes and tarts and pastries and just all kinds of desserts. They're very romantic, very whimsical. They add this enchanting kind of delicate look to your dishes. They are a source of A and C vitamins. They boost collagen production and they improve your immune system as well. A very purifying flower for your apothecary kitchen. So these little dainty flowers, they're very delicate in texture. They have a very velvety kind of experience in the mouth. So the flavor profile is pretty sweet and a little bit citrusy. So almost like raw honey that's been taken from bees that have been getting their nectar from maybe like citrus flowers or something like that. They're a little bit herbal, almost minty even in flavor. So I mainly use these for desserts, for topping up all the things that we've already talked about. Cupcakes, things like that. But you can also use them for savory dishes. You know, things like sweet potato, sweet potato, mashed sweet potato. Maybe even putting a spicy tahini or peanut sesame dressing on top. Use sesame seeds, a little bit of lemon juice to cut across that sweetness. Next up we have roses. So all roses are edible. But you know, like everything on this list, some of them might be a little bit more flavorsome than others. So this is just down to personal preference. Try something, see how it is. Always be careful, but try it and see what you like best. Now you've probably seen products that have rose in them in terms of skin care. So they are great for skin rejuvenation and skin health. They help with stress and anxiety. I love to make a rose tea at night before bed. They are packed with vitamins and minerals. You can eat the petals, you can eat the buds, you can eat the rose hips that form after all of the petals have fallen off. And they can also help soothe digestion. So great as an after dinner kind of snack. So as far as flavor goes, the sweeter the fragrance, the sweeter the flavor. So what I like to say is, when it comes to the rose, trust your nose for picking them for culinary purposes. So something like an alnick rose by David Austin is very fruity, very floral, and it's really, really pungent. It almost tastes like sweets, like sweet candies. Really, really delicious. The alnick rose is a vibrant kind of warm pink color. It's gorgeous. It's a really great performer and it has that typical kind of buttercup, just like a gorgeous David Austin English style rose. So overall, these roses are going to be fruity, floral, sweet. Something like a fairy rose, these don't have hardly any fragrance at all. I don't think. No, I mean, they smell a little vegetal, but there's no real discernible fragrance to them. But you want to kind of pick things that are going to be a little bit more flavorful, have a little bit more punch to them. So you can really use roses for any kind of dessert. You can use them like rose and chocolate is a beautiful pairing. Rose and cardamom is like a match made in heaven. You could do a beautiful rose jam, like creating like a confit of roses with a little bit of citrus, maybe lemon juice, just to kind of cut through some of the sweetness of the jam. That would be amazing. An apple and rose chutney would be gorgeous, especially around this time of year, kind of spreading that on some crostini, maybe some herbs from the garden or some of the other flowers from this list just sprinkled on top or some rose petals would be beautiful. Next up, we have marigolds, and this is a very popular, very well-known edible flower as well. Marigolds have a lovely antioxidant profile. They fight free radicals, promote tissue growth, they're anti-inflammatory. Like some of the others on this list, they also support skin health. I these are zesty, bright, zingy. They almost have sort of a tangerine quality to them. So you could add these to curries, the petals to curries, to kind of play off of that richness and add a brightening element to your curry. Or you could put them on a summer pasta with some beautiful blistered garden tomatoes, some lemon zest, a little bit of hemp seeds sprinkled on top, some olive oil. Yes, yes, yes. So next up, we have borage, and this is one of my favorite colors of blue in the garden. It's just that crystal clear blue color. It is a bit of a garden thug. It grows happily and rapidly wherever it lands, but it is really, really easy to control. It's just something to keep in mind, though. So I planted it in one of our wattled garden beds in the veggie patch last year, I think, and this year it just popped up all amongst our begonias that we put in that bed. So it's just sort of like popping through and kind of freckling through the pink of the begonias. It actually looks really, really nice, but it is one that will spread. So if you have an area where you just want lots of color, little edible flowers, that can be really nice. So borage is rich in omegas, it's anti-inflammatory, and it has been used as a sedative and as a natural diuretic as well. So these have a crisp watermelon flavor. They're also reminiscent of cucumbers, sort of like on a warm day, like a cucumber that's been warmed by the sun, but somehow when you take a bite of it, it still has that cool refreshing crunch. They're really delicious. So I've been enjoying making like a Swedish summer salad with fresh crisp watermelon, borage petals, some capers, tofu, a little bit of mint, flax seeds, a tiny dash, drizzle of lemon juice. You could add the borage petals on top, maybe add some dahlia petals as well. That would be really, really nice. You could also add these to desserts for sure. Breakfast would be really, really nice, sort of like maybe a chia seed pudding with some of these borage flowers on top of it. Maybe borage flowers and blueberries would be nice. You could do a little bit of oatmeal, kind of a similar palette to it, or maybe mango, maybe an oatmeal with a little bit of mango, if that's in season and available for you. And you can also add it to salads. I love doing that. You could add it to a nice crunchy kale salad. The leaves of the kale are all tender. They'll just add that nice freshness to it. You could also add it to an Asian, like a cucumber salad, maybe cucumber, either you could do like a cucumber and dill salad. I mean, it's like eight in the morning and I'm like making myself so hungry right now. You could also add it to an Asian cucumber salad, maybe with some pickled onions. That would be really, really nice. It also just looks so exotic. It's a very beautiful flower and the stamens are very pointy in the center. Just the color of it, all of it looks very exotic. So adding it to things like mocktails, I love to make a virgin mojito and put that on top. Really, really nice, especially if you muddle mint and maybe some cucumber in there, that could be really nice to sort of pair with that. And you can also, you know, it looks beautiful in like martini glasses and things like that. So if you wanted to make a gorgeous sort of like watermelon spritzer type of thing or mocktail, that could be really, really nice. But you can really add them to anything to sort of zhuzh it up with a nice, bright, airy flavor. Next up, we have basil flowers and these tiny ivory flowers are actually packed with that intense herbal flavor. So if your basil has gone to flower, don't feel bad about it. See it as an opportunity to harvest these beautiful white delicacies. These flowers are so small that the nutritional properties are minimal, but basil helps to regulate blood sugar. It's a cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis fighter. It's a truly amazing plant. The Cleveland Clinic has a really great article about the benefits of basil. You should check that out. And I love the flavor. They're just very, very herbal. They smell almost stronger than basil leaves. They're just an incredible herbal basil flavor. Really, really delicious. That adds a touch of that very elevated sort of sophisticated floral in there as well. It's a beautiful pairing. And then to use them in the kitchen. I mean, add them to anything. Add them to pasta. It's just any pasta that you have. Lasagna, just add them to a delicious linguine. I made some angel hair pasta yesterday and just sprinkled all of this on it. Incredible. That blistered tomato pasta I was talking about. Just sprinkle this on top instead of Parmesan cheese. Oh, you could make a chive and basil flower biscuit. Come on, that would be incredible. Just a little bit of maybe vegan butter and then just top some of these on there. You could make a savory tart and put this on top. Maybe a little kind of cashew cream dressing just drizzled on top with some of this on top of that tart. Yes, yes, yes. And in Indian and Thai cuisines, these are a delicacy. So just sprinkle that on your Thai curries and like a masala. Just put this on top. That would be fantastic. So whether you're using there are tons of different types of basil, whether you're using Italian or a Thai basil, really think about adding these to your dishes. Okay, that was our list. I want to add a few honorable mentions in here as well. Squash blossoms. These are fantastic and stuffed with some vegan cheese. They would be delicious. Arugula flowers are fantastic. They have that similar nasturtium thing where they're peppery and super fun. And lavender. When I lived in California, I grew lavender much more successfully than here. And I used to add it to shortbread cookies. I used to cook for a homeless shelter and we would bring them there once a month. And whenever I would make these lavender cookies from the garden, they loved them. So that combination is fantastic. And you use the leaves of the lavender, just diced up really, really finely, as well as the flowers and kind of pressing them in. Delicious. Pomegranate flowers as well. If you live somewhere where you can grow those, like again, when I lived in California, I used to use those beautiful, vibrant red flowers in teas and things like that all the time. And then we have things like calendula. That's a great one. Super easy to grow. It's a marigold. You know, marigolds are calendulas. But that's a great one. That's a great one just to have in your apothecary garden in general. You know, echinacea. So you have coneflowers and cornflowers. So coneflowers, echinacea is wonderful to add in edible flower. Cornflowers as well. We don't have any in bloom right now, but those are fantastic. And I mentioned this, but chive blossoms. Chive blossoms are wonderful to cook with. They're beautiful. A little tofu scramble with some blossoms on top would be wonderful. Also a biscuit, like a chive biscuit with chive flowers and basil flowers on top would be fantastic. But usually chive, some of these I left off because, you know, things like chive flowers, a lot of people use those in cuisine and cooking and stuff like that, but not a lot of people talk about basil flowers. So I wanted to have some sort of traditional ones and then a few that you might not have heard of or used before. And I know a lot of people, when they see their basil starting to bolt, they almost feel like it's a garden fail, but I think it's an amazing garden opportunity. And then we have amazing ones like mint flowers, dill flowers, fennel flowers. Those are incredible. You know, cilantro, parsley flowers, all of those. Hyssops and all of the flowers that we mentioned in the apothecary video, which I can link up here if you haven't seen that one already. There are just so, so many edible flowers. I could go on and on. Please do let me know if there are any others that you love. I really love connecting with you and being able to, yeah, like have this beautiful connection with fellow nature and garden lovers. So like this video if you like, subscribe if you're not already. It really does help our little channel and I'll see you again very, very soon. And now I'm so hungry. I'm going to go make some food with these edible flowers. Ciao!