Elizabethan English Herb and Flower Salad With Honey Dressing
Herbs on Saturday
Elizabethan English Herb and Flower Salad with Honey Dressing
An old Elizabethan salad recipe, but with an air of modernity about it, and totally suitable for the modern-day table as our interest increases in herbal and floral remedies to ease us through today’s busy, stressful and hectic lifestyle. I have made some suggestions about which flowers and herbs to use – but PLEASE do check that the flowers and herbs you choose to use are edible. The French use flowers in their salads on a daily basis, just as we used to do in the past, and although the title suggests this to be an English recipe, this style of herbal and floral salad would have been very common throughout Medieval Europe. I serve this throughout the year, when edible flowers and herbs are in season, always freshly picked from my garden; it is always enjoyed with great relish and is a vibrant topic of dinner party conversation! It makes a lovely appetiser or can be served with the cheese course for an unusual and pretty accompaniment. Make sure that your flowers and herbs are insecticide free, and are not traffic polluted as well………wipe them or wash them gently, allowing them to dry before using them.
Elizabethan English Herb and Flower Salad with Honey Dressing
The herbs are a moveable feast; my published recipe suggests herbs that were available and worked at the time that I researched and developed this recipe. However, I also use French Tarragon, Savory (both winter and summer savoury) and Marjoram too……when I have them available. And, a little Lovage also adds a salty and yeasty flavour the salad, which is rather nice. (Just one or two leaves if lovage can be very overpowering.) Flowers have been used in cooking for centuries, and many old recipes will often suggest adding marigold petals to dishes, especially red meat and salads, as well as violets. When using flowers in cooking, it is usually best NOT to source them from florists, as it’s impossible to know what chemicals have been sprayed on them to keep them fresh whilst travelling, or as a fertiliser prior to being cut. Many farm shops, as well as supermarkets now offer edible flowers for sale, but of course the best way is to grow them yourself – even a few pots on a sunny window sill will yield enough flowers to adorn your recipes! There is a handy and simple guide to edible flowers here: Edible Flowers
Elizabethan English Herb and Flower Salad with Honey Dressing
As this is a herbal salad as well as a floral salad, I am entering this salad into my monthly blogging challenge, Herbs on Saturday. Plus, don’t forget that many herbs have wonderful flowers that can be used in salads, such as chives, borage and angelica. This salad makes a wonderful addition to the cheese course, and makes a tasty mouth cleanser. I am looking forward to my borage flowers, I LOVE them in a glass of Pimms, as well as on cheesecakes and desserts. So, here’s looking forward to a VERY floral summer, and let’s hoping that weather improves – on the way back from Edinburgh on Tuesday, I saw snow on the hills in the Northumbria National Park! Have a great day, I am back later with the promised photos, recipes, news and Jubilee bakes – I am off to visit an award winning local preserves kitchen this afternoon, and I will be back with news about that too………Karen.
Elizabethan English Herb and Flower Salad with Honey Dressing
Elizabethan Herb & Flower Salad with Honey Dressing
Print recipe
| Serves | 4 |
| Prep time | 5 minutes |
| Dietary | Vegetarian |
| Meal type | Appetizer, Lunch, Salad, Side Dish, Snack, Starter |
| Misc | Gourmet, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold |
| Occasion | Casual Party, Formal Party |
| Region | British |
| By author | Karen S Burns-Booth |
Ingredients
- 1 bunch watercress, washed and trimmed
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon clear honey
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 mint leaves, chopped
- 3 sage leaves, chopped
- 6 radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1 bunch lamb's lettuce, washed and trimmed
- 4 sorrel leaves, torn into small pieces
- 6 spring onions, finely sliced
- fresh edible flowers ( calendula flowers, roses, primroses, lavender, blue borage, violets, nasturtiums, pansies, marigolds)
Note
Make sure that your flowers and herbs are insecticide free, and are not traffic polluted as well.........wipe them or wash them gently, allowing them to dry before using them.
Directions
| Step 1 | Toss together the watercress, lamb's lettuce, spring onions, sorrel, sage and mint leaves. |
| Step 2 | Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice and honey - season with salt and pepper. Toss the salad with the dressing. |
| Step 3 | Place the salad in an attractive serving dish. Scatter the edible flowers over the top of the salad. |
Elizabethan English Herb and Flower Salad with Honey Dressing
You can join in my Herbs on Saturday Blog Challenge here:
Herbs on Saturday
I am also entering this into Ren’s Simple and in Season event,
which is being hosted by the Botanical Baker for May:
Sarah says
A great looking salad – fresh and tasty too!
My all time favourites are rocket flowers, but nasturtiums and calendula come a close second.
Off to see what I can find in the garden so I can make your salad.
Sarah
Karen says
Thanks so much Sarah! I also LOVE rocket flowers as well as nasturtiums too…..and nasturtium seeds. Let me know what you manage to forage from your garden for a salad! Karen
Rachel K says
This is exquisite! I love it! I’ve used nasturtium, borage and chives before but not angelica. What does angelica taste like? I’ve seen it crystalised and assume that it tastes of aniseed and grass!
I love this sort of cooking and particularly like the fact that in some ways cooking with flowers is going back to our roots (sorry that wasn’t meant to be a bad pun!) I am trying to track down a book by Florence White about cooking with flowers, but no joy yet.
Karen says
Ah, I HAVE the book by Florence White, a wonderful book and very rare now…..I was lucky enough to acquire my book from an old second hand book shop several years ago. I agree with you re. going back to our roots (!) in regards to cooking with flowers. Angelica flowers taste almost exactly like the candies stems, and yes, with a mild aniseed flavour. Thanks for your lovely comments…..Karen
Renee says
Beautiful salad! Well done.
Karen says
THANKS so much Renee! 🙂
Ren Behan says
Oh so pretty! What a lovely salad, Karen. Thank you for sending it across to Simple and in Season for Urvashi. The radishes look such a pretty colour next to the flowers and the leaves, don’t they? It looks delicious xx
Karen says
Thanks Ren – this was a salad I developed and researched for a magazine article a few years ago….it makes a wonderfully pretty addition to any dinner table.
🙂
kellie@foodtoglow says
How pretty and delicate! I love putting herbs and flowers into salads, but alas the weather up here is so dire that I don’t have much to work with. And you rightly point out that we shouldn’t procure them from the florist. Hopefully it will cheer up soon and maybe even have enough sun to cast an inviting shadow on my photos too. 😀
Karen says
Thanks Kellie! We had two or three sunny days here in Yorkshire and now it’s back to gloomy overcast weather today. I have always been fascinated about flowers in cooking and baking, and remember “treating” my grandparents to a salad of nasturtium flowers when I was in my late teens…..they ate it, bless them, but I am not sure what they thought!
Becs @ Lay the table says
The salad looks so beautiful. I’m not much of a salad eater, but how could you resist eating that?!
Karen says
THANKS Becs! It does make a lovely “statement” to the dinner table! 🙂
bakingaddict says
Wow this looks too beautiful to eat!! I am intrigued by the addition of fresh edible flowers – I’ve never had them in salads. I’d like to bake more with edible flowers – crystallized flowers are on my list of things to do.
Karen says
THANKS! Edible flowers often taste as they smell, in a weird sort of way! They are so pretty when added to cooking and were used extensively throughout history.
shuhan says
I missed this entry when you first wrote it, but I’m glad I saw this on the Simple and In Season Roundup! I’ve onlyr ecently discovered the joy of using flowers in cooking, and am trying to learn more. I got some gorgeous chive flowers from the farmer’s amrket the other day and made tempura with them, they were yummy! Now I want to venture into flowers that are more traditionally thought of as simply decorative, but am still abit unsure which are edible, so your tips ahev been really helpful. I’m not a fan of flowers, but it’s a different story for flowers in food 😉
Karen says
Aw thanks Shuhan! I LOVE flowers in cooking and baking, and I am glad that my tips helped you!
Maya Russell says
I knew you could eat nasturtiums but not pansies and primroses. Have to make sure they’re insect free!