edible flowers and micro herbs
4 August 2022
Recipes

Edible Flowers & Micro Herbs for Summer Recipes

Isn’t summer just the best time of year?! The long, warm evenings are absolutely divine. Sipping cocktails in the garden, wearing those questionable sandals that leave even more questionable tan lines in-between your toes.

So, how do you like to celebrate summer? With delicious food? Spending time with the family? Sipping Ice-cold drinks in the garden perhaps? However you like to enjoy summer, we’ve got lots of ideas to bring the family together.

During summer, our food preferences usually change a little. As soon as a ray of sunshine appears, our parents ‘go to’ dinner changes. Say goodbye to those dreaded casserole pots and hello to ‘picky bits for dinner’. Picky Dinners usually consist of things like; mini potatoes, salads, coleslaw, crisps, some type of meat, cheeses, and anything else yummy really! The dinners get colder as the weather gets warmer.

As most of us know, dessert is always the best part of any meal. So we’re going to skip to desert now because who doesn’t love a quick and easy desert on a summers evening? Here I have a mouth-watering recipe from Emma Hatcher. It’s a recipe for scrumptious, ‘Edible Flower Shortbread’ and it’s even gluten free too! It’s a super easy recipe and the end product is almost too pretty to eat!

Emma Hatcher's Edible Flower Shortbread

Ingredients

  • Gluten Free Plain Flour (325g)
  • Sea Salt (1 tsp)
  • Butter (Chilled & Cut into Cubes) (200g)
  • Golden Caster Sugar (125g)
  • Vanilla Extract (2 tsp)
  • Large Free Range Egg Yolks (2)
  • Lemon Zest (1)
  • Edible Flowers (Nurtured in Norfolk)
Edible Flower Shortbread Baking Edible Flower Shortbread Baking

Method

  1. Tip the flour into a food processor, then add the salt and whizz to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Finally, add the sugar, vanilla, egg yolks and lemon zest and pulse again until you create a smooth dough
  2. Trying to touch the dough as little as possible, bring it together into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour
  3. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C and lightly grease 2 large baking sheets
  4. Place the dough onto a lightly (gluten-free) floured surface and roll out to a generous 5mm/¼in thick
  5. Using a circle cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can, before pressing an edible flower or two in the middle of each one
  6. Arrange the cookies on the greased baking sheets, spacing the biscuits slightly apart so they have a bit of room to spread as they cook
  7. Bake for 20 minutes until the biscuits are just turning pale golden around the edges, then transfer to a wire rack to cool
  8. Scoop up any remaining dough and repeat the process again
  9. The biscuits will keep fresh for up to 5 days stored in an airtight tin
she cant eat what - emma hatcher She Can't Eat What (Emma Hatcher)

Recipe Notes

  • For a twist, try replacing the lemon zest with orange or grapefruit zest.
  • The dough can be frozen for up to 6 weeks.
  • To use, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw for one hour at room temperature so that it is soft enough to roll out.
edible viola flowers

That sounds so yummy! Lots of our edible flowers could be used in this recipe. Flowers like violas, pansies, mini daisies, nasturtiums and many more! Depending on the size of the biscuit, the flowers can be large or small or even have multiple flowers on one biscuit. They add an elegant look to any recipe and a unique flavour. Depending on your preferences, you can use fresh or dried flowers. Both are super pretty! Fresh flowers are super snazzy and add a 3D effect to your baking, dried flowers are much flatter but still stunning! Dried flowers have a six-month shelf life and fresh flower last around 5-7 days. So, it depends on what works best for you and is most convenient. But if you whip these out at evening dinner, everybody is sure to love them.

pressed pansy edible flowers, also known as pansies or viola. Growing on our farm in Norfolk Pansy Edible Flowers

Our fresh Edible Flowers have recently become more popular for their use as decoration on cocktails. So if you’re fancying an alcoholic beverage with an added twist this summer, why not try using our Edible Flowers? They can be used floating atop of cocktails or if you’re feeling like experimenting with something super-duper cool, add our flowers around the glass or even placing them across the glass! This can be done using a cocktail stick to attach them all to each other.

pressed edible pansy flowers Pressed Edible Pansy Flowers

OH AND…we mustn’t forget that our Pressed Flowers can also be used on cocktails and mocktails too! Our Pressed Flowers gracefully sit atop of drinks without actually sinking. This means that they’ll stay floating and looking pretty until you’ve finished your drink. That would be something to impress the whole family with, and something that they probably haven’t seen before! So, this summer don’t just step outside of your comfort zone with food and drink, take a leap and discover new recipes that will get everyone talking!

We’re going to have to give our Micro Herbs a special mention too! These are something that a lot more people are incorporating into their meals at the moment. Micro Herbs are packed full of nutrients and tasty too! It’s not often that you hear that in the same sentence! Here I have a delightful recipe that includes some of our micro cress. Daniel Freear created this recipe for a perfect summer evening, with Nurtured in Norfolk’s micro herbs and edible leaves.

Pressed Sumac | Black Garlic Aioli | Heritage Tomatoes | Pickled Shallots | Nasturtium Leaves

Ingredients

  • Sumac Chicken
  • Dates (50g)
  • Sumac (2 tsp)
  • Pickled Shallots
  • White Wine Vinegar (120ml)
  • Sugar (70g)
  • Black Garlic Aioli
  • White Wine Vinegar (1 tsp)
  • Rape Seed Oil (400ml)
  • Mixed Heritage Tomatoes (Large Handful)
  • Free Range Chicken Breasts (2 Large)
  • Pistachios (50g)
  • Smoked Paprika (1 tsp)
  • Shallots (2)
  • Water (60ml)
  • Juniper Berries (6)
  • Free Range Egg Yolks (2)
  • Black Garlic Cloves (5)
  • Heritage Tomatoes
Pressed Sumac Chicken with Norfolk Nasturtium Leaves Daniel Freear's Pressed Sumac Chicken with Nurtured in Norfolk Nasturtium Leaves

Method

Pressed Chicken

  • Dice each chicken breast into eight equal pieces and put in a bowl along with the paprika, the sumac, the pistachios and the dates. Add a large pinch of table salt and mix heavily making sure the chicken is well coated. line a rectangular pate mould with 3 layers of clingfilm and press the mixture into this, cover the top with cling film then place another pate mould on top. Place some heavy weights inside the top mould and leave to chill in the fridge for one hour. After one hour you need to sort out a ban Marie for the chicken to cook in. fill a deep tray with boiling water and place the pate moulds in this ensuring the water goes at least ¾ of the way up the mould. Place this into a 140-degree oven for 1 1/2 hours or until the middle of the chicken probes at 72 degrees. Once cooked chill in the fridge.

Pickled Shallots

  • Place the water, vinegar, sugar and juniper berries into a sauce pan and place on a high heat for 6 minutes, in the meantime peel the shallot and cut into thin rings. After the six minutes is up plunge the shallot rings into the pickling liquor and leave to chill on the side. Once chilled place into a kilner jar and put into the fridge.

Black Garlic Aioli

  • Add the egg yolks and the white wine vinegar into a food processor and blitz for 30 seconds, now slowly add the rape seed oil making sure you are adding in a slow and steady stream this will incorporate into a thick emulsion. When all the oil has gone add the black garlic to the processor to along with a heavy pinch of salt and blitz for a further 45 seconds. Now decant into a tub and chill in the fridge.

Tomatoes

  • The tomatoes can be prepped in several different ways dependant on your own personal taste. For mine I cut some in half season and slow roast in the oven at 90 degrees for 4 hours these take on a sweet flavour as you reduce the water content. I also just modestly cut some and season them as the tomatoes are such a good product they don’t always need to be over complicated. Finally, I quarter the last ones and de seed them. I then cut these into strips and blowtorch the skin. This adds a smoky touch to the tomatoes but also isn’t overpowering. To serve slice the chicken into generous portions and delicately add all the other elements to the plate to finish drizzle a little chive oil on the plate and dress with Nurtured in Norfolk’s Nasturtium Leaves.

 

Lastly, we’re going to talk about one of our summertime products. This is our BBQ Mix. This is as bright as our mixes get and it’s perfect for the summer months! It contains a various collection of vibrant summer flowers, such as calendulas, Tagetes, Pansies, Cornflowers and many more. These Mixes are made to order, so they’re full of the finest items that are available on the day. This BBQ box is also full of countless herbs that can bring any BBQ creation to life.

BBQ Mix with Edible Flowers & Herbs

This BBQ Mix can be used for any sweet or savoury culinary creation, from home-made cocktails to meat marinades – this is what you need! The herbs in this mix can be utilised for their flavouring and incorporated into sorbets and ice-creams, this would leave the ice-cream with a unique flavour that everyone will want the recipe for.

The edible flowers in this mix are a great garnish for any summer dish. They look stunning and can be added to things like punches, and main platters. The flowers can be used whole, or the petals can be used individually and spinked atop of salads, desserts and starters. The smaller flowers in the mix can be uses as decoration on main course or desserts.

The last awesome idea for today, is to make sauces and marinades out of the herbs in the mix. This would be super fresh and flavourful, which can then be used to drizzle over your BBQ meets and salads… doesn’t that sound delicious? What’s even better, is that these sources can be made vegetarian friendly and used on veggie dishes!

If you want some more brilliant baking ideas for to make this summer one to remember, head over to The Nurtured Way, where you will find lots blogs and recipe ideas to inspire your inner chef!

Back to Blog