So a few weeks ago, I  talked about broccoli being an edible flower, and that there are many others.  I know, I know, I was surprised by the idea too, but in fact, there are many edible flowers such as Gladiolus, Fuschia, Impatien, Pansies and Sunflowers to name a few. To see a longer list of edible flowers, click here.

Edible flowers add color, flavor and aroma to salads.  The salad pictured above uses Nasturtium and Cilantro blossoms. Nasturtium has a great orange color and a black pepper taste. The dainty white Cilantro blossoms taste like cilantro leaves and look kind of like the flower: Gypsophilia AKA: “Baby’s Breath.”

It’s a little uncommon in America to find flowers on your food, but other cultures have used them for many years in cooking and why not? Be mindful of allergies and such and keep to the list of known safe-to-eat flowers, but have some fun with artful and tasty flowers in your salads.