Flowers, so bright and cheerful, raise your vibe without even trying. Edible flowers bring that energy to the core of your being, especially when they also have medicinal properties like the beautiful nasturtium. Its flowers are bright trumpets that herald sunny days. When we were children, we used to pick the nasturtium flowers, bite the tip at the back of the flower and suck the nectar, the mere fairy-sized sip of sweetness.
Plants grow easily and prolifically from seed, popping out of pots with abandon, blooming in all shades of fiery colors from vermilion to ochre. All they need is moisture and not too rich soil and you are guaranteed a harvest. Anyone with an herb garden can find room for a few seeds, though if space is limited, confine them to a container or they’ll happily fall all over your other herbs.
Nasturtium flowers make cheery poses as a lunch table centerpiece, especially if you’ve planted a mix of colors, ranging from gold to deep red to bright orange. Arrange them with a few sprigs of other herbs like rosemary and fennel to add a bit of texture, lavender flowers for contrast and you have an edible and scented bouquet, perfect to take as a gift when visiting friends.
However, the best kept secret of the nasturtium is that both the leaves and the flowers are edible. Its strong peppery flavor adds interest to salads and can be a real boon to a jaded palate when stores only carry mild varieties of lettuce. Some of the round green nasturtium leaves, looking like mouse or fairy umbrellas, will elevate a soft iceberg or buttery lettuce to designer kitchen realms, their bright blooms scatter to delight the eye and bring an element of fun into your table.
Recipe for a Nasturtium Salad
1 lettuce – iceberg, butter or cos
small bouquet of nasturtiums – leaves and flowers
ripe red tomatoes
1 tablespoon capers
feta cheese
Decide the amounts to your liking. Nasturtium leaves are spicy and the more you put in, the spicier the salad gets. Wash and dry the lettuce and cut it into pieces of the size you prefer. Rinse the nasturtium leaves and tear or chop into rough strips. If you are using small tomatoes, cut them in half, cube the larger ones. Top the feta cheese and sprinkle over the salad with the capers. Top with the whole flowers and maybe one or two whole leaves. This bright and tangy salad is perfect with pizzas, deli meats, or as a solo entree.
The round leaves are a powerful medicinal weapon against sore throats. At the first sign of a sore throat, chew a nasturtium leaf every two hours. This can sometimes get rid of the sore throat altogether, other times it just keeps it from getting too bad. The leaves have natural antibacterial properties and are rich in vitamin C. They can also be made into a tea by steeping a few leaves in a cup of boiling water for five minutes and drinking them plain or adding a teaspoon of honey. .
In ancient times, in its native Peru, nasturtium was used as a disinfectant for wounds and was taken to battlefields to be used as a poultice and disinfectant wash. Not bad for a pretty garden flower!
Copyright 2007 Kit Heathcock
