There are many recipes for edible flowers and these flowers are also excellent for companion planting.
You can also forage for these flowers, but if you have a garden, I highly recommend growing them. Many of these edible flowers can also be grown in containers. Edible flowers are a pretty and useful addition to your garden.
Flowers are pretty to use and infuse, here are some great ways to use them.
Edible flowers uses:
- Cake decoration
- Homemade beauty & body care products
- Medicinal flowers can be made into homemade medicine
- Flowers for salad & cuisine
- Certain edible flowers can be make into syrups
- Flower wines
- Infused into oils or vinegar
- Frozen into ice cubes
Edible flowers & recipes in this post:
- Nasturtiums
- Calendula
- Dandelions
- Elderflowers
- Chives
- Roses
- Borage
- Violets
- Lilacs
Nasturtium Edible Flower Recipes
Nasturtiums are pretty, they come in many colors and grow in two ways: trailing and vining nasturtiums and compact plants.
They make excellent companion planting flowers. Check them over for aphids before you harvest them as they deter them from your crops.
I love growing nasturtiums as a flower border.
Nasturtium flowers have a slight peppery taste to them.
The leaves and seeds of nasturtiums are also edible.
Nasturtium recipes
- Nasturtiumpesto from Garden Betty
- Savory nasturtium flower butter from the Painted Rabbit
- Nasturtium capers from Attainable Sustainable
- Tomato Nasturtium Salad from Sainsbury Magazine
- Goat cheese with nasturtium petals from Martha Stewart
Calendula is one of my favorite edible flowers for food and medicine
This cheerful flowering edible flower blooms all summer and even after light frosts. The more you pick, the more flowers grow. Learn how to harvest and dry the petals to makecalendula oil. This flower is very easy to grow and usually self-sows.
Edible Calendula Flower Recipes
- Bake calendula & Thyme shortbread cookies from Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment
- 5 Ways to preserve calendula flowers from Joybilee Farm
- 10 Things to make with calendula flowers from the Nerdy Farm Wife
- Calendula healing salve from the Nitty Gritty Life
Edible Dandelion Flower Recipes
Most people know what dandelions are, however many consider it a weed. There’s been a movement towards appreciating dandelions because the root, leaves and flowers are edible and can be used. Because dandelions grow anywhere and everywhere be extra cautious they haven’t been sprayed with chemicals before using them.
We dry dandelion petals and infuse into an oil to make salves.
- Cook dandelion fritters from Edible Wild Food
- Make dandelion Magnesium Lotion from the Nerdy Farm Wife
- Dandelion Pesto from Learning and Yearning
- Homespun Seasonal Living shows you how to use dandelions for food and medicine
- Ferment dandelion wine from Common Sense Home
- Dandelion jelly from Simply Canning
Elderflowers smell so lovely in the spring and elderberries are prized for cold and flu season
This flower blooms in the spring and later in the season elderflowers become elderberries. Every fall we make elderberry syrup and freeze elderberries, we’ve even made elderberry wine.
Elderflowers make a lovely syrup which can be used to create spritzer drinks
- Yummy elderflower syrup from 2 pots, 2 cooks
- Elderflower soda from Here we Are
- Try elderflower sparkling mead from Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment
- Make elderflower cordial from Jamie Oliver
- Gorgeous elderflower chiffon cake from Honestly Yum
Borage Edible Flower Recipes
Borage has a mild cucumber taste and beautiful fuzzy flowers. The bees love them!
Love & Olive Oil shows you how to make candied Borage flower fairy cakes
You can freeze borage into pretty ice cubes.
Wild Rose Petal Edible Flower Recipes
We have a lot of wild roses that grow in this area, and there are a lot of wild rose recipes for wonderful homemade body products. You can make all these great rose recipes from rose petals, too, not just wild roses.
Chive Edible Flower Recipes
Chives are a pretty spring blooming flower and our kids like to pretend they’re fairy wands.
Because it’s common for the green part of chives to be eaten, the flowers are often discarded. However, the flowers are edible too! Chives taste onion like, although you can also get the white flowered garlic chives. Enjoy the flowers in a salad the way you would add greens chives. Although you can leave the flowers whole in a salad, I prefer them broken up into smaller pieces as they’re easier to eat.
They make a great food topping to brighten up any dish.
Edible Chive Flower Recipes
- Chive blossom vinegar from a Canadian Foodie
- Make chive compound butter from Ciao Florentina
Lilac is a very fragrant flower, you might be surprised to find out it’s edible. This flower blooms in the spring,and makes a great lilac hedge.
Lilac Edible Flower Recipes
- Lilac cream flower cake Angelic Kin
- Infused lilac cookie from Fresh Bites Daily
- Lilac Syrup from And Cute
- Folk & Co has a refreshing lilac lemonade recipe
Edible Violet Flower Recipes
How to use Violets
- Violet jelly from the Nerdy Farm Wife
- Wild violet vinegar from Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment
- Jam made with violets from Every Cake you Bake
- Make violet syrup from Lavender & Lovage
More Great Edible Flowers
- Basil flowers
- Sage flowers
- Hibiscus
- Chrysanthemum
- Lavender
- Squash blossoms (commonly made into flower fritters)
- Bachelor Buttons/Cornflowers
Tutorial from Home is where the boat is
Edible Flower Recipe Tips
- Make sure the edible flowers haven’t been sprayed
- Make sure you have correctly identified the flower
- Check over the flowers for bugs or damages
- Use edible flowers quickly after harvesting as they lose their freshness rapidly
What is your favorite edible flower to grow and use?
