Ideas For Making Colorful Salads Using Edible Flowers (2024)

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Adding edible flowers to your salads is sure to be a talking point among your guests, and they will enjoy a pleasant surprise when they taste them! Although many people consider flowers to be an unusual addition to a salad, in Continental Europe, flowers such as pot marigolds, primroses, and nasturtiums are often served as a decoration for other dishes and for making colorful salads.

Ideas For Making Colorful Salads With Edible Flowers

There are so many different way to incorporate edible flowers into your favorite salad recipes. Add flowers to other salad ingredients, or sprinkle them over the top of your salad at the last minute, so they look their best, rather than smothered in the dressing. You may like to add a little rosewater to your salad dressing to enhance the floral flavors of your salad.

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Creating Colorful Salads

Take care to identify your flower correctly, as some flowers can be toxic, and ensure that the plants have not been treated with potentially dangerous chemicals. No one wants to be eating pesticide! Also avoid store bought flowers unless they are clearly sold in the produce section of your store. Simply grow them yourself at home!

Many of these plants may be easily raised from seed. Flowers like nasturtiums and pot marigolds (or other Calendula Officinalis) are colorful and easy flowers for kids to grow from seed!

Many flowers may also be used in delicious, fragrant homemade infused waters, and crystalized flowers is a lovely, personal way to decorate your cakes. To ensure you have a ready supply of edible flowers and other salad ingredients, with minimum work, grow in your own backyard.

Types of Edible Flowers

Be sure to wash your flowers or petals in fresh water and dry using a tea towel or salad spinner before use.

Violets

Add violets to pale salad ingredients, such as iceberg lettuce, to add color and a delicate flavor.

Nasturtiums

Grow nasturtiums in a variety of vivid colors for your salads. The flowers add a wonderful peppery taste to any salad.

Rose Petals

Add a sprinkling of garden rose petals to your salads; the choice of colors is very wide, and they add an exotic touch.

Pot Marigolds (Calendula Officinalis)

Marigold flowers have been used in herbal medicine for a long time, and these cheerful, bright blooms make a lovely addition to a mixed salad.

Primroses

Primroses are delicate flowers that do not have a strong flavor. They look lovely scattered over a spring salad.

Elderflower

Elderflower has a delicate, fragrant taste that varies from plant to plant. Pick on a warm sunny day to enjoy the most intense flavor. Cut the small blossoms from the stems, which should be discarded. You may like to steep the flowers in vinegar before adding them to your salads.

Red Clover

Break red clover flowers into florets and add sparingly to salads. A delicious combination is to use a few red clover florets with a small amount of chopped mint and a larger quantity of milder salad ingredients.

It’s that easy to make deliciously colorful salads using edible flowers!

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This post could contain affiliate links or be sponsored which means I earn from advertising. Also as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. More details here.