Eat flowers!

There are 200,000 species of flowers and, of these, 250 are edible. Greedy and good for health, some ideas for cooking.

Spicy or mild, sweet or bitter, light or heady: there are as many tastes as plant varieties. To learn how to cook the Amandine Geers and Olivier Degorce reveal their secrets in their book "I cook the flowers. 50 windfalls. " To start, we can just add them to salads of vegetables or fruit. But we can also sauté the end of cooking with vegetables in soups, desserts, drinks, jokes and even cheeses. One has only to leave room for imagination.

Better yet, according to specialist floral gastronomy Alice Caron Lambert, "a medicinal point of view, the flowers provide benefits. Borage, the taste of oyster and cucumber, as nasturtium and marigold act as probiotics helping to strengthen natural defenses. " Dr. Eric Lorrain, President IESV (European Institute of plant substances), himself is more modest about the effectiveness flowers to enjoy, "We will not get the same benefit with herbal medicine and . extraction of active substances "one thing is certain: the flowers, their scents and colors, are good for morale and bring a little happiness to a meal. The most important is here to have fun!

A vegan cheese sunflower and cornflower 

For a small "cheese" 

Petals 3 blueberries (or cornflowers) dried or fresh 100 g of sunflower seeds the juice of half a lemon 2 tablespoons. Coffee chopped red onion, 1 pinch of Espelette pepper salt.

1 The day before, rinse sunflower seeds, soak twelve hours in the water.The next day, rinse again and rub your hands to loosen the thin films that envelop them. The latter will float on the water surface, which allows easy removal. Drain.

2 In a food processor, mix the seeds with 1 teaspoon chopped red onion, lemon juice, salt, pepper and a little water (30-40 ml) to get to the texture of a paste homogeneous. At this stage, we can already enjoy by spreading on slices of bread. Otherwise, draining the cheese by disposing in a stamen (the gauze suitable) shaped round cheese or bundle. Press regularly or place a weight on top and leave to drain in a colander for several hours.

3 Open the bale. Add the cornflowers and the rest of the chopped onion on top before closing the cheesecloth and let drain again. After two or three hours, remove carefully preparing for the offer as a cheese.

Choose the

Some are poisonous. In one, everything is consumable, for others, only the flower is. Do not touch the crocus, lily of the valley, the morning glory ... or to lavender leaves, lilac, thought, they are inedible. "Do not buy from the florist because of the Conservatives!" Said Amandine Geers. Go organic shops or grow them!

Daylily buds Japanese

For 2 people: 15 buds of day lilies 2 c. tablespoons of olive or sesame oil 1 tsp. soy sauce to

1 c. tablespoon honey 1 tsp. Coffee sesame seeds Some inflorescences of wild fennel before hatching (optional).

Preparation time: 5 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes.

1 Toast the dry sesame seeds in a frying pan for a few seconds on high.Book. Wash the buds of day lilies in the water. Cook them in a pan with a few tablespoons of water for 8 minutes. Serve on plates. Keep the juices remaining in the pan.

2 Mix the soy sauce, oil and honey, then reduce it quickly in the pan over high heat.

3 Sprinkle sesame seeds on the plate. Drizzle with sauce and add the fennel inflorescences. Serve immediately.

Mimosa eggs to cardamine

For 2 people: 10 strands of cuckoo flower 3 eggs + 1 egg 80 ml olive oil or sunflower salt. Preparation: 20 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes.

1 Place the flowers underwater. Drain on paper towels, remove and discard stems. Dip the egg three 10 minutes in boiling water, allow to cool in cold water, then peel them. cut them in half and remove the yolks.Refrigerate.

2 Prepare a mayonnaise: deposit the raw egg yolk in a bowl, add salt, add the oil gradually whisk. Overwrite hard yolks with a fork, add the mayonnaise and three quarters of flowers.

3 Garnish with half white with this preparation, cover the remaining flowers and serve chilled.