What's Old Is New: Edible Flowers Inspire a New Palate While Honoring Old Traditions

ERICA BLOOM, Growing Hope

Edible flowers transform dishes and awaken our five senses in a single bite.

For chefs and restaurants experimenting with new flavors, edible flowers add more than just a pop of color to a meal, they contribute hints of sweetness or even spice. In Michigan, flowers like nasturtiums and rose petals show up in salads, vinaigrettes, and desserts at fine dining restaurants and trendy pop-ups. They are whipped, mashed, candied, and used as garnishes, proving that the seed-bearing parts of many plants are making a comeback as a culinary showstopper.

While many of us view eating a brightly colored petal or bud in our appetizer soup as a rebellion from our traditional American gastronomy, cultures across the world have been incorporating edible flowers into their recipes and medicine for centuries. Some of the earliest mentions of edible flowers are from ancient Egypt where people ate the blue lotus for its sedative effects. In places like China and Japan, chrysanthemum petals have been ladled into soup and made into teas for over a thousand years. And in Mexico, squash blossoms are no stranger to encasing vegetables and cheese, illuminating people’s taste buds for generations.

Meiko Krishok, co-founder of Detroit’s Guerrilla Foods and mobile restaurant, The Pink Flamingo, is one of those chefs challenging status-quo flavors by using traditional ingredients. “Flowers provide contrast, visually and flavor wise. Using a flower is like using the whole purpose of a plant—the seeds and reproductive life—it’s a sacred thing,” she says.

Like many chefs establishing a deeper relationship with the food they create, Meiko describes cooking with flowers as something much more than aesthetics, it’s a connection to the plant and the person who picked the flower by hand.

Many indigenous peoples worldwide have used flowers for their nutritional and medicinal properties. In traditional Chinese medicine, flowers like honeysuckle have been vital as anti-inflammatories. Similar to how eating fruits and vegetables provides nutritious benefits because of their diverse colors, flowers, too, provide minerals and antioxidants depending on their color. Research has shown that purple violas and pink dianthus have high levels of potassium, while cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli and kale have edible flowers high in antioxidants.

While there are plenty of health benefits to eating edible flowers, don’t just gobble up the nearest bouquet. Flowers should be consumed moderately, and with proper identification. Many flowers are only good if very fresh and really just the petals or sometimes buds are actually edible. It’s ill advised to eat flowers from florists, nurseries or garden centers as they could be sprayed with pesticides or sometimes even dyed. The best places to find edible flowers are at your local farmers’ markets, farm stands, or specialty grocery stores. Make sure to clean them by washing them gently in a bowl of cold water and letting them air dry.

Or, start your own native edible flower and herb garden and become, as Meiko Krishok says, “connected to the whole essence of the plant.”