Spring Salad, Straight From Your Flower Garden

Beautiful Food for Your Health, Body and Skin

When spring arrives and your garden blooms, turn those flowers into a delicious and nutritious salad! Take your next dinner party to a whole new level by incorporating these beautiful flowers, packed with skin beautifying ingredients, into your spring salad.
  • Pansy petals have a faint, lettuce-like taste and contain anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties that help treat skin ailments.
  • Carnation petals are sweet, spicy, but sometimes bitter (test each flower before including). Carnations have been used for thousands of years to promote skin healing and vitality.
  • Calendula petals have a mild tangy taste, and are great for dry or damaged skin as they promotes fast healing and skin regeneration.
  • Bachelor’s Buttons have a cucumber flavor with a fun, frilly texture. Also known as Cornflower, these flowers help curb anxiety, reduce joint pain and soothe irritated skin.
  • Nasturtium petals are one of the tastiest flowers with notes of mustard, pepper and honey. Nasturtium contains Vitamin C, a great anti-oxidant, and when applied directly to the skin can help mild muscular pain.

Eat Your Garden Salad

Serves 6 as a first course. Time: 20 minutes Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed, safflower, or olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon minced tarragon
  • 1 Persian cucumber or 1/3 English cucumber
  • About 50 sugar snap peas
  • 1/4 cup lightly packed chervil sprigs (optional)
  • 3 ounces mâche clusters (about 3 lightly packed cups)
  • 4 ounces mesclun (about 6 lightly packed cups)
  • 4 medium radishes, sliced in half lengthwise
  • Your choice of: bachelor's buttons (whole and petals), calendula and carnation petals, whole Johnny-jump-ups, nasturtium petals, pansy petals, and stock flowerets (15 to 20 whole flowers total)*
Preparation
  1. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and tarragon.
  2. Thinly slice cucumber. Split 30 of the fatter peapods and remove the peas; set aside. Gently rinse chervil, mâche, and mesclun and gently spin twice in a salad spinner to thoroughly dry the leaves.
  3. Put greens in a large bowl and toss gently but thoroughly with 3 tbsp. dressing (leaves should be barely coated), adding more dressing if necessary.
  4. Divide greens among plates. To each salad, add a few slices of cucumber, some sugar snap peas (both whole pods and just the peas), and some radishes. Drizzle with any remaining dressing, if you like, and top with whole flowers and flower petals.
Note: *Use only unsprayed, organic petals and blooms. If you're growing your own flowers from seedlings, be sure to buy organic plants—and don't spray them as they grow. To buy edible flowers, try gourmet grocery stores and farmers' markets; avoid flowers from florists and nurseries. Sources: Sunset, My Recipes, Live Strong