Eating plants may seem strange, but there’s edible, nutrient-rich flowers all around us — you just need to know how to find them. Here’s a few tips on how to add a little zing to your salads with ingredients from your garden.
You won’t find these delicate leaves in your local supermarket; you’ll find them in the hedgerows, gardens and woodlands around you. Eating your plants with ordinary lettuce leaves will create a deliciously unique salad.
Crafting, lifestyle and gardening guru, Vanessa Arbuthnott, tells you which plants are safe to eat, where to find them and how to include them in your meals.
Lime leaves
The young, heart-shaped shrubberies of small-leaved limes are edible. They have a succulent almost sweet flavour which is enhanced once the leaf is covered in honey dew from aphids.
Hawthorn
This time of year, Hawthorn’s young leaves, buds and flowers are all edible. They can be added to green salads and grated root dishes. The developing flower buds are particularly versatile, working wonderfully as garnishes.
Wild garlic
Its leaves can be eaten raw in salads, blanched and used in place of spinach or made into a delicious soup and pesto. They have a mild garlic flavour and are at their best before the flowers appear.
Dandelions
If raw dandelion leaves don’t appeal to you, they can be steamed or added to a stir-fry or soup, which makes them taste less bitter. The flowers are sweet and crunchy and can be eaten raw, breaded and fried, or even to make dandelion syrup and wine.
Don’t miss Platinum’s next issue, on shop shelves May 13, for more houseplants tips and advice. You can subscribe here, with your first three issues from £3 and get one FREE Prai Beauty gift when you sign up.
