Cooking local: Edible flowers

Edible Flowers

Photos and Text By Greta Hardin

So you went away for a weekend. It was hot and sunny, and your kale, or mustard greens, or broccoli, turnips or some other brassica sp. went haywire, bolted, and started producing these yellow flowers. What do you do?

Bolted kale

Eat them. Turns out, any plant where we eat the leaves, we can eat the flowers. The flower petals are simply specialized leaves. Some flowers may not taste particularly good – many lettuce flowers are particularly bitter – but they are all edible. (Hey – what? There are lettuce flowers?! Yes – that’s where lettuce seeds come from.)

Don’t be scared off by the bitter lettuce flowers, skip to the yummy ones. Arugula flowers have a curiously sweet, spicy flavor – some people even think they taste a bit like peanuts, making them a very nice accompaniment to Thai food (try them on a cold Thai Beef Salad). Broccoli flowers taste of broccoli, kale flowers are a nice addition to any salads, and those bright red and orange nasturtiums you are seeing in lettuce mixes also have a pleasant sweet and peppery flavor.

For an especially tasty treat, snap up those squash blossoms as they appear at the Farmers Market. The very yummiest combination is the female flowers atop itty-bitty baby summer squash. These are so crisp and sweet you’ll see the relationship of cucumbers and summer squash as you eat one up. (The male flowers are the ones on regular stems. Very spiky – don’t {owww---ptooie!} eat them.)  Both male and female flowers have a large center – pistil or stamen – that is edible, but it does have an odd texture, and gets in the way of stuffing, so it is usually broken off and removed.

Now, make a salad that includes flowers, and enjoy this summer-only treat!

And if you are feeling adventurous, try this simple stuffing for squash blossoms.

Tomato Bread Crumb Dressing

-for-

Squash Blossoms and Baby Summer Squash

Ingredients:

• bread – 1 slice (or the hard ends off a baguette)
• cherry tomatoes – 6-8, any color
• parsley – small handful (basil and oregano are also good here)
• queso fresco or feta cheese (or any other fresh cheese)
• garlic clove
• salt and pepper to taste
• baby summer squash and blossoms – 6 -12 or however many you can get
• oil – a few tsp

Equipment:

• toaster -or- oven and pan
• knife
• cutting board
• small bowl
• sauté pan
• spatula
• (tongs)
• food processer (optional)
• serving plate

Prep:

1. Toast the bread and break into crumbs.  (This is very fast in the food processor).  If using the food processor, toss the parsley and garlic in with the crumbs to mince and mix them together.  Otherwise finely chop the parsley and garlic by hand.
2. Cut or crumble the cheese into tiny pieces.  Halve the tomatoes and clean out the seeds and goo and discard (this keep the bread crumbs from getting too squishy).  Chop up the tomatoes small.
3. Mix the breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic, tomatoes and cheese.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
4. Gently rinse the baby squash, rub to remove any prickly hairs and trim off any spiky stems.  Gently open the blossoms and remove the pistil or stamen inside (edible, but not scrumptious).

Cook!

1. Carefully stuff the blossoms with a tsp or two of stuffing.  Don’t over-stuff.  You don’t want to tear the fragile blossoms and have the mixture spilling everywhere.
2. Pour about 2 tsp of oil into the sauté pan with a few breadcrumbs.  Place the pan over medium-high heat.  When the breadcrumbs have fried, the pan is hot and ready to go (about 4 minutes).
3. Gently place the baby squash and blossom in the hot pan.  Sauté and gently turn the baby squash and blossoms until they are browned on all sides (about 10 minutes).  Set them aside on a plate.
4. Quickly fry the rest of the breadcrumb mixture in an additional tsp of oil.  It is done when the crumbs have darkened a little and the cheese crumbles are soft.
5. Place the crumb mixture on the serving plate with the fried baby squash and blossoms.
6. Eat ‘em up while they are hot.  Repeat.

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Saturday June 14th - October 4th

The Shoreline Farmers Market at Shoreline City Hall

Top level of the Parking Structure (Free Parking underneath)

17500 Midvale Ave N, Shoreline

Sunday May 11th - October 26th

The Lake Forest Park Farmers Market will be at Third Place Commons

Lower Level Parking Lot (Free Parking in surrounding spots and in the upper lot)

17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park

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Greta Hardin is a science teacher, food nerd, and the author of Cooking Your Local Produce: A cookbook for tackling Farmers Markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and your own back yard.

Cooking Your Local Produce now has a  CookLocal App for iPhone! A Farmers Market Guide and Shopping Lists for recipes.