Eat Your Flowers: A Cookbook

By Loria Stern

Cook with botanical ingredients for stunning visuals and delicious flavors—and let your creativity blossom!

For most of us, “eat your flowers” might mean enjoying an edible blossom decorating a restaurant dessert on a night out. For Loria Stern, it’s a way to bring nature into the kitchen, to play with colors and flavors, and to make every dish beautiful. She incorporates natural plant dusts, pressed and fresh blooms, and vibrant herbs and veggies into her cooking for whimsical, gorgeous, and nourishing meals. In this endlessly creative book, she invites you to take advantage of this edible bounty to create your own, providing both her own recipes (and her favorite variations) and the foundational knowledge on how to incorporate botanicals into any dish.

Loria shares how to get brilliantly colorful results from all-natural ingredients, such as a gorgeous amethyst spread made from wilted purple cabbage and blended with nuts, which turns bright pink with the squeeze of a lemon. But Loria’s use of botanicals brings value far beyond just the visual—she is skilled at incorporating them in ways that make the most of their true flavors, enhancing each dish in taste as well as aesthetics. Blending freeze-dried raspberries into flour makes her cookie dough a sultry red and gives it a perfect tartness. Breakfasts; appetizers; soups and salads; breads; vegetables; pasta and grains; meat, poultry, and seafood; desserts; and beverages all get floral enhancements, with recipes including:

• Rainbow Coconut Granola
• Floral Summer Rolls
• Gardenscape Focaccia
• Botanical Steamed Tamales Filled with Hibiscus Jackfruit
• Basil Flower Eggplant in Hoisin Sauce
• Rose Pistachio Verdant Bars
• Flower-Pressed Shortbread Cookies
• Prickly Pear Cocktail

Eat Your Flowers shows you how to transform botanical ingredients—root to stem—into recipes that are a pleasure to make, eat, and share.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9780063204270

Book preview

Dedication

This book is dedicated to California—to the temperate climate, to the many farmers across the state growing delicious produce, and to a landscape that blossoms with some of the most beautiful flowers in the world. This book is also an ode to my hometown, Ojai, where loving nature was rooted in me as a child, as well as to Los Angeles, the place that shaped me as a chef. It is a truly global city, offering a diverse array of foods that continually inspire, pushing me always to experiment with new ingredients, techniques, and flavor combinations.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Introduction: Rooted in Nature

Part One: Inspiration and Experimentation

Grow Wild: Exploration and Creativity in the Kitchen

Nature’s Palette: Cooking and Baking with Botanical Hues

Hints for the Home Cook

Part Two: Eat Your Flowers

Breakfast

Sedimentary Scones

Rainbow Coconut Granola

Homemade Coconut Yogurt

Almond Doughnuts with Rainbow Glaze

Scarborough Herb-Pressed Biscuits

Botanical Green Savory Tart

Asparagus Chickpea Frittata

Pea Tendril Pressed Pie

Flower Petal Morning Buns

Apps and Snacks

Green Chickpea Falafel

Zucchini Fritters

Purple Potato Coins and Herbed Goat Cheese Topped with Salmon Roe

Beet and Goat Cheese Terrine

Mushroom Pressed Pâté

Floral Summer Rolls

Carta di Musica Fiorita

Crackers: Tiny Veggie, Prisma, Botanical

Herbal Glass Potato Chips

Soups and Salads

Aura Soup

Golden Curry Lentil Soup with Apple

Purple Sweet Potato Soup with Lemongrass and Coconut

Chicories with Pomegranate Sunflower Dressing and Spicy Seeded Bark

Kale Caesar Salad with Chickpea Croutons

Garden Greens, Apple, and Pickled Lotus with Sun-Dried Tomato Tahini Dressing

Royal Cabbage Slaw

Spicy Cashew and Kelp Noodle Salad

Green Papaya Salad with Tamarind Dressing and Peanuts

Breads and Doughs

Gardenscape Focaccia

Botanical Naan (Flatbread)

Bao (Steamed Buns)

Flower-Pressed Chapatis

Botanical-Pressed Tortillas

Easy as Piecrust

Vegetables

Spiced Roasted Romanesco with Garlic Aioli

Braided Long Beans

Braised Market Vegetables

Herby Miso Sweet Potatoes and Squash

Spicy Braised Coconut Greens

Grilled Corn, Shishitos, and Basil Salad

Pasta, Grains, and Rice

Flower-Pressed Pasta

Orange-Scented Couscous

Farro, Mint, and Zucchini Salad with Roasted Goat Cheese

Grilled Halloumi, Olive-Raisin Relish, Soft Herbs, and Forbidden Black Rice

Jade Green Bamboo Coconut Rice

Prisma Rice

Hearty Mains

Mole Jackfruit Tacos

Steamed Botanical Tamales Filled with Hibiscus Jackfruit

Mezcal Black Beans

Seasonal Vegetable Curry

Basil Flower Eggplant

Meat, Poultry, and Seafood

Black Cod with Olive-Raisin Relish

Dill Salmon with Creamy Apple Mustard

Flower-Stuffed Fish with Green Chermoula

Lemongrass Meatballs

Coconut Carrot Sauce

Dandelion Tea–Rubbed Flank Steak with Dandelion Chimichurri

Emerald Herb Chicken Salad

Poached Chicken and Bone Broth

Savory Chicken with Apricots and Dates

Desserts

Flower-Pressed Shortbread Cookies

Rose Pistachio Verdant Bars

Chromatic Cake

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Tri-Citrus Olive Oil Cake

Floral Brownies

Raw Cashew Floral Cheesecake

Citrine Pie

Dark Chocolate Adaptogenic Mushroom Tart

Sugar Cubes

Drinks

Hibiscus Lavender Lemonade

Turmeric Tangerine Mocktail or Cocktail

Fresh Bloody Mary with a Spicy Rim

Prickly Pear Cocktail

Green Chia Elixir

Butterfly Blue Moon Milk

The Botanical Pantry

Herby

Emerald Green Herb Dip

Yuzu Vinaigrette

Green Chermoula

Dandelion Chimichurri

Creamy

Vegan Aioli

Caper Flower Vegan Caesar Dressing

Herbed Goat Cheese

Creamy Apple-Mustard Sauce

Sun-Dried Tomato Tahini Dressing

Salty Honey-Whipped Tahini

Almond Hoisin Sauce

Miso-Almond Dressing

Amethyst Cashew Pâté/Pesto

Beet Yogurt

Spicy Creamy Cashew Dressing

Pomegranate Sunflower Dressing

Chunky-ish

Masala Marinara

Olive-Raisin Relish

Hazelnut Mole

Raspberry Rose Jam

Ginger-Date Chutney

Pine Nut and Raisin Chile Salsa

Crunchy

Chickpea Croutons

Popped Black Rice

Spicy Caramelized Seed Bark

Caviar Mustard Seeds

Pickles

Basic Brine

Golden Turmeric Pickled Cauliflower or Lotus Root

Spicy Rainbow Pepper Pickles

Neon Radish Pickles

Dark Purple Carrot Pickles

Hibiscus Daikon Pickles

Grape Leaves

Flower Salt

Bae’s Spice Blend

Salty Onion Pickles

Infusions

Water Infusion

Botanical Vinegar

Botanical Simple Syrup

Turmeric Honey Simple Syrup

Botanical Extract

Botanical Oil Infusion

Acknowledgments

Universal Conversion Chart

Index

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Introduction

Rooted in Nature

One of my first memories is of a flower, a sunflower to be precise, growing high in my childhood garden—a golden yellow giantess, swaying above me under a clear California sky, a towering example of nature’s artistry. I was lucky to grow up in Ojai, an idyllic valley town set snug between the Topatopa Mountains and the Pacific. My family were artists and musicians, and I was encouraged early on to explore not only my own imagination but also the natural world outside our door.

We had a patch of tangled vegetables and herbs in our backyard, and the roads nearby were lined with oak, olive, and citrus trees. Wild mustard, fennel, rosemary, and lavender were the usual suspects in my neighborhood. I was obsessed with botanicals of all kinds—the scents, the tastes, the colors.

This fascination only grew with age and experience. I took painting classes, inspired by milk-pink jasmine and the tangerine glow of California poppies. I picked bouquets of rosemary and sage. And I cooked, baked, mixed, and stirred, working alongside my mother, who was both a terrific cook and a patient teacher. I remember being in the kitchen alongside her almost as soon as I could stand, learning the basics of breaking eggs and mixing batter.

Later I found work in various restaurants and bakeries, and eventually, in 2011, I became a pastry chef at a fancy hotel. Around this same time I began to study edible and medicinal plants, enrolling in adult education classes that included instructor-led hikes where we identified plants and learned how they were used by California’s earliest Indigenous inhabitants. I began spending much of my free time in my own small home garden, studying the way certain flowers grew, looked, smelled, and tasted. Simultaneously, at work at the hotel, I learned more advanced pastry techniques. As I progressed in my baking, it felt natural to combine these skills with my newfound knowledge of edible plants.

Ultimately, making botanical dishes combines all the things I love—cooking and baking, art, eating, painting, and, of course, the natural botanical world. After literally hundreds upon hundreds of bakes, I finally began to understand what worked best, what looked beautiful, and what tasted even better than it looks. And when I started sharing the first of these successful experiments—my flower-pressed shortbread cookies—with friends and family, as well as posting images on my social media feed, the results were life-changing.

I’m fortunate to get to cook, bake, and experiment with botanical-based recipes every day as both my passion and my livelihood. It continually thrills and excites me. Blending freeze-dried raspberries into flour and folding the mixture into a cookie dough that bakes a deep and sultry red, or wilting purple cabbage and processing it with softened nuts to make a vibrant purple spread that magically turns bright pink with the squeeze of a lemon—this alchemy gives me so much joy. And I want to share that joy with you.

This book may be called Eat Your Flowers, but it’s about all botanicals—from flowers to roots, stalks to leaves, fruits to seeds. I want you to not only love what you cook and bake but also to see the whole botanical world in a new and delicious way that creates a feast for all the senses.

I hope this book turns you on to ingredients you may not have heard of and cooking more—both for yourself and for others. I want you to shock yourself (and everyone else!) with the spectacular, showstopping dishes you create, inspired from the kitchen, the garden, the farmers’ market—even the ordinary produce aisle. I believe that when we embrace flavors, explore cuisines, and awaken to nature, together we’ll be able to make the world a more beautiful, more connected, and more delicious place.

Part One

Inspiration and Experimentation

Grow Wild

Exploration and Creativity in the Kitchen

To me, the kitchen is a place for creative expression. Flowers, herbs, and botanicals of all kinds provide me with an endless palette, a way of exploring not only a range of flavors but color and presentation as well. In my work as both an artist and a chef, I’ve always tried to bring nature into the kitchen and onto the plate—and nature always provides. Vibrant hues, complex tastes, not to mention added nutrition and medicine—there are so many ways to use nature’s bounty to create delicious and gorgeous foods.

My desire in this book is to offer you healthy, showstopping go-to recipes that use edible botanicals and the vivid colors of nature as centerpiece ingredients. I want to encourage confidence and experimentation by introducing you to professional (but easy) techniques and tricks that allow you to cook at home like a pro.

Through years of work and research, I’ve discovered how different botanicals behave in the kitchen and how to achieve the specific results you want when baking a particular edible herb, leaf, or flower into a dough or batter. Each of these recipes has come out of my own culinary trials and errors, which have revealed secrets from how to maintain a flower’s original color when baked to which flavors make for the best pairings.

For far too long, flowers, herbs, and other plants have been relegated to mere garnishes, sentenced to languish uneaten on the side of your plate. In my world, botanicals refers not just to flowers but to plants of all kinds and all parts of the plant: root, stalk, leaf, seed, flower, fruit. My recipes celebrate the beauty of botanicals in all their varieties: fruits and vegetables; leafy plants like lettuce and spinach; even stalks, like asparagus; and seeds, those flavorful bursts responsible for many spices.

With this definition in mind, I’ve created an array of recipes that both celebrate the beauty of nature and embrace cooking and baking with all pure botanical ingredients and edible blooms. Ultimately, in sharing these recipes, I hope to offer a clear introduction to artisanal cooking, alternative ingredients, innovative recipe combinations, efficient culinary techniques, historical facts, mythical stories, and natural, creative, and colorful food that’s often (almost) too pretty to eat!

To that end, let’s start with the basics, some essential rules to cook by. In my kitchen, of course, rules are meant to be broken, but as you explore the chapters to come, here are some principles to keep in mind as you begin your botanical journey.

Enjoy experimentation! Experiment, experiment, experiment! Every week, seek out an ingredient you’ve never cooked with before and try out a new recipe. Don’t be afraid of failing. It’s through experimentation that inspiration is born! When I first started experimenting with different colors in recipes, I recall using way too much parsley in a bread; the result was gorgeously emerald, but the bread tasted literally just like a bowl of parsley. I ended up cutting the bread into chunks and making croutons doused in olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and paprika. The finished product was delicious.

Mix it up! Just like listening to music, there’s a different food for every mood, and mixing up your meals and ingredients will keep you from becoming bored in the kitchen. Many of these recipes are adaptable and many ingredients can either be used as the star ingredient in a recipe or provide a burst of color while taking a backseat to flavor. One way I like to mix things up is by swapping in botanical-infused ingredients for their plain counterpart. For example, you can replace any amount of water with a water infusion or any type of extract for vanilla extract. The combinations are endless, and I encourage you to experiment with your favorite botanical flavors. This sort of thing makes me so excited, and I think (and hope) you’ll be inspired to try!

Make it you! The different dietary recommendations we’re exposed to constantly can be overwhelming. It feels like I’ve tried them all—raw vegan, gluten-free, paleo, anti-candida, and the list goes on. What works for me? Well, it’s a little bit of everything. I like to mix up my diet often, including a wide variety of spices, vegetables, fruits, grains, flours, and of course botanicals.

Healthy dishes are what feel good for me and so that is how I feed others. Personally, I never use processed ingredients, chemical food coloring, or anything with a GMO in my ingredients. I like clean eating, so when I see a recipe, I always think to myself, How would I make this both healthy and aesthetically pleasing with my favorite ingredients?

When it comes to ingredients, I prefer local first, then organic, but if you can’t get your hands on quality local or organic ingredients, or if they are too pricey, don’t worry. Conventional (nonorganic) ingredients will work just fine; you can still achieve delicious and beautiful results. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Enjoy the process and do what is best for you.

Explore Flavors! The world is a delicious place. I encourage everyone to explore the cuisines of different countries and support restaurants and markets that celebrate global flavors. Try out new fruits, spices, herbs, and cuisines. Being open to and honoring the origins of the world’s great cooking traditions will help to inspire your own unique creations.

We learn from the past, and by respecting and celebrating this history, we create a new future. Cooking is an art, and the palate we share has broadened and expanded. We’re now lucky enough to have access to foods from all over the globe. We’re able to experiment and to explore in the kitchen in ways we never have before. And as we’ve become more connected, our cuisines have blended, melded, transformed. What a beautiful thing to be able to share in this way!

As we celebrate this evolving tapestry of cuisine, it’s also important to respect where these traditions originated, to learn from other cultures and, again, to honor the contribution every culture in the world has made to the new and delicious diversity of our global cuisine. In this way, every meal we make becomes an opportunity to deepen our understanding of both ourselves and those around us.

Have fun! Cooking should be inclusive and fun—anyone can learn to make delicious and wholesome dishes. Cooking and baking are wonderful communal activities, and time spent in the kitchen should be joyful and free of stress, not precious or exclusionary. This conviction drives both my passion and my profession. It’s that simple.

Stay inspired! My first inspiration is the ingredients themselves. I love combining different textures of foods and balancing the sweet and the savory in unexpected ways. Eat the way you love and love the way you eat!

I love working with my hands and find cooking and baking to be meditative and incredibly rewarding. My personal muse is Mother Nature herself. I love sampling seasonal produce, tasting what grows each day in my own garden, visiting farmers’ markets, and immersing myself in nature as often as possible. I also love visiting museums and galleries for artistic inspiration, which I then bring back into my kitchen.

A (Very) Brief History of Botanicals

I’m not the first chef or artist to have a love affair with edible flowers, of course.

Botanicals have been used in kitchens for thousands of years; there are records of edible flowers being used in cookery in nearly every ancient culture across the world. I’m continually intrigued by this shared global history. Exploring the past has provided endless inspiration, a method of discovering my own ways of infusing foods with botanicals to enhance flavor and texture and add pizzazz to plating and presentation. Learning about the historic uses of botanicals is what inspired me to start playing with my food—literally.

Let’s take a quick look at the rich history of botanicals—how we’ve used plants for healing, medicine, sacrifice, ornamentation, ceremony, celebration, and, of course, cooking. Our modern world tends to place cultivated plants into strict edible and decorative categories, but this wasn’t always true. Instead, they were seen as edible or inedible, with the additional category of medicinal in the days before modern medicine. The first documentation of using edible botanicals was in the Middle East, where saffron was cultivated for royalty and used in religious rituals. Roses and orange blossoms were also grown for similar purposes. In fact, roses were used medicinally and nutritionally by the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Phoenicians, who cultivated large public rose gardens and considered them to be as important a crop as wheat.

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