Colorful Spring Salad

[oldcoot]

Spring is sprung. So I decided to try something I've thought about a long time: a true, floral spring salad.

I started with soome peppery Nasturtium - leaves, flowers, and nost importantly, the little green seed pods. Then a few fragrant rose petals, followed by the tartnes of Wood Sorrel (sourgrass?), again, flowers, leaves, and stems. All of those tossed with some crusp iceberg lettuce and a very light honey vinaigrette dressing.

That, enjoyed in the garden on a sunny Saturday noon, proved to be an interesting and flavorful choice,. Perhaps a little more of the Nasturtium would have been even better

[kitchenelf]

I love the bitterness of edible flowers!!! I just wish we had somewhere here to buy them - and I don't have enough sun to grow them - and even if I did I'd have to do something to keep the squirrels out :-(

Your salad looks wonderful oldcoot and BW!! What a great way to spend your lunch!

[oldcoot]

Bitterness, "Elf? None of these flowers (NAsturtium, Rose, or Wood Sorrel) were at all bitter to mmy taste. I really dislike "bitter". The Nasturtium - all parts of it, are quite peppery - especially the seed pod, wihich, when nearly ripe, is downright HOT! Rose petals have little flavor, but add a pleasant - if fleeting - aroma. Wood Sorrel flowers also have little flavor, but the stems, particularly, are quite tart - almost lemony.

In addition to the more commonly enjoyed (except by Carnivore) flowers, such as cauliflower, broccoli, and artichoke, we've indulged in yucca and squash, that I can think of offhand. None of them are bitter, either.

Then, of course, there are the herb flowers: sage, mint, rosemary, etc, which are used more for decoration, but reflect the flavor or their herb.

So what flowers have you found bitter? Ah - dandelion occurs to me, for one!

[Coco]

Jeez, oldcoot. You'll contradict anything won't you? :)

[oldcoot]

O.K., having the name, I'll play the game: To contradict you, Coco, that about bitter flowers was not intended as a contradiciction, but a question.

Kitchenelf finds flowers bitter, I don't. So are we tasting the same flowers?

This is a Discussion board, is it not? How can one discuss without questioning and, yes, disagreeing at times?

[Coco]

For goodness sake.....I was just teasing! Point taken...Have a good day! :)

[kitchenelf]

I think I had - geez, now I can't remember the name of the flower - was it dragonfly? You know, the ones you can put your thumb and pointer finger in and you made them talk or bite when you were little! I know for sure that that was one of the flowers - and it could be that the term bitter is a little off - peppery could be more like it - I'll just have to go graze in someone's garden .

I know there were others oldcoot but I can't remember what all they were - maybe some johnny jumpups -

I'd give anything for some sunshine to grow my own!!!!!!

I'll have to make a trip to Charlotte - it will be my sushi and flower eating trip! LOL

[Spice]

I wish I'd seen this a couple of months ago! My nasturtiums were huge and overflowed their beds. I used the flowers to decorate my salads--the colors were wonderful--from palest yellow to oranges and deep red. I didn't know the leaves were edible. Do you pickle the seed pods before you use them?
--Spice