Top 7 Mexican Edible Flowers: A Feast for the Senses

Have you ever wondered if you can still elevate your dishes by adding a touch of Mexico’s rich beauty to your culinary art creations by using edible Mexican plants? Let’s explore with us which Mexican edible flowers you can use in your dishes to get appreciation from everyone.

Mexico is a biodiverse, international nation whose cuisine, including floral gastronomy, accounts for a significant portion of its identity.

Do You Know These Popular and Exotic Mexican Edible Flowers?

Hibiscus | Jamaica Mexican edible flowers

Hibiscus flowers are used to create infusions and have an acidic taste with a red color. It’s the main ingredient in Christmas. You can purchase them from the market in bulk form. They can be harvested in the months of October and November, and any yield blossoms in the season of spring and summer.

Squash Edible Flowers

Pumpkin plants have trumpet-shaped blossoms in yellow or orange. They can be eaten raw or cooked according to preference. They can be used in sweet and savory dishes. You can get them elsewhere in the market. Always purchase them on the same day you have to cook them for a better experience; otherwise, their flowers wilt and are useless.

Maguey edible flowers

This greenish-yellow flower, known as gumbo or flor de quiote, is a member of the agavaceae family and grows from the maguey stem. In the country’s central regions, it is typically eaten fried, roasted, spiced, or combined with pancakes or eggs. These flowers bloom in the spring and are best eaten while still in buds because they taste bitter when ripe. To get rid of irritating materials and potentially bitter tastes, it’s advised to boil them in boiling water. This usually gets rid of the pistils as well.

Orange edible flowers

Orange trees produce fragrant flowers that are typically harvested fresh or dried and used to create infusions. Since they are frequently found between the autumn and summer, it is common to flavour and perfume various preparations, such as bread of the dead. It’s also a component of syrups and classic desserts like stuffed lemons.

Plumeria Edible Flowers

This flower reaches a height of five to eight meters. Its tree is uneven in shape and has simple leaves at the tips of branches in a spiral pattern. The flower is cooked with sugar and used as food in certain cultures. They are used in Polynesia to sweeten some of the staple foods.

Apart from their ornamental purpose, these shrubs are also used for their fragrant flowers, which produce flavourings such as essential oils, perfumes, and incense. This is a very significant tradition because, similar to Hawaii, they are used to make garlands to greet visitors to the island.

Bougainvillea Edible Flowers

This species, whose brilliance spreads throughout much of the Mexican territory, is edible and can be used in recipes and as a decorative element in the landscape. It has intriguing qualities like active ingredients that are antispasmodic and the capacity to greatly lessen allergy symptoms, in addition to aiding in lung decongestion.

Salads and infusions are the best ways to consume it.

Izote Edible flowers

A greenish-white blossom that is produced by various yucca plant varieties. These flowers have been used since pre-Hispanic times and are particularly valued as food. Typically, they are used in savoury and sweet dishes, such as syrup, stewed with green chilli, or pancakes with eggs. The flower buds, which are typically produced in April and May, are used to make salads. When the flowers are young, it is best to eat them because as they get older, they start to taste bitter.

Mexican Edible flowers in the world

Edible flowers can be found all over the world with quite unique characteristics and properties. All are not native to Mexico. Saffron can be seen mostly all over the globe but is native to Southern Asia. It has two parts: one is red stamens that are edible, and the other is cloves that can be dried to produce spice. Orange blossom flowers are also very common edible flowers and originated in the Mediterranean region and are now very popular in Mexico for making traditional bread for the deceased person.

Mexican Edible Flowers in Mesoamerica

The native peoples of Mesoamerica have long included flowers into their cuisine, and the country of Mexico stands out for the variety of flowers that grow there, including marigold flowers, pumpkin, orange bloom, and carnations in addition to roses, tulips, gerbera daisies, sunflowers, and orchids.

Edible Mexican Plants as Functional Food

A finely prepared dish serves as a gift for those who enjoy it, and it is common to serve soups, savoury dishes, salads, cocktails, infusions, and even desserts decorated with flowers. Their delicate aroma and texture enhance the flavour of the dishes and add colour and beauty.

Flowers are prominent ingredients in many recipes today, from soups and quesadillas made with pumpkin flowers, marigolds, or quintiles to watercress salads, tezontle cakes, Jamaica water, chamomile or rosemary infusions, and creative dishes made with rose, pansy, or geranium.

How To Get Edible Flowers?

Ensure the mexican flowers you can eat are organic and pesticide-free; this is very important. These secure edible charms are sold in several markets throughout Mexico City by groups of women and small farmers. Urban gardeners also sell them for sale.

Mexican tarragon flowers are used in cullinary art as a edible flowers and has many health benefits , like help lowers the blood presssure along with sleep improvement.

How To Make Edible Flowers?

Before using edible flowers in your cooking, there are a few things to keep in mind. It’s nothing extraordinary; just a few guidelines to help you make the most of it.

• Cut the flowers.
• Pick the best one with the most unique colour.
• Stamens, pistils, and petals with a white base should be thrown off to avoid inconvenience because they contain a bitter flavour.
• Wash them thoroughly and pat dry.
• Do not store them for a longer period of time, as their freshness gets off and it is not a good experience for the customer.

History of Eating Flowers in Mexico

According to the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, “In Mexico, flowers have different uses; some serve as food, others are used for decorative purposes, some are medicinal, and there are also those that obtain a ritual meaning thanks to shared ideas,” by indigenous peoples. “Knowledge about the uses of flora is an ancestral inheritance that remains with us.”

Before the Spanish rule, the Aztecs employed edible flowers in their food, and this practice eventually spread throughout Mexico. The Aztec people regularly consumed the blossoms and used them for culinary and medicinal purposes. The usage of edible flowers became widespread over time, and today, Mexican cuisine relies heavily on them.

Types of Edible Flowers in Mexican Cuisine

Mexican cuisine traditionally uses edible flowers to give meals flavour, colour, and distinctive texture. Edible flower varieties in Mexican cuisine range widely, much like the nation’s culinary customs, from vivid marigolds to delicate hibiscus petals. You can add a delightful taste experience to your Mexican dishes by adding edible flowers, improving their appearance.

The Queen of Mexican Edible Flowers: Squash Flower

Mexican edible flowers are delicious and have interesting blooms that can be used in different cooking recipes to enhance the taste. The squash flower is one of the most popular edible flowers and the queen of the culinary arts in Mexico.

Squash flowers have been used for Mexican cuisines since long ago and are known as flor de calabaza in Spanish.Squash have very delicate, beautiful blooms with a delicate appearance and have a very distinctive flavor that goes well with the meals and makes them extraordinarily delicious.

Mexican Edible Flowers

Squash blossoms have a very distinctive taste with some sweetness and squash flavor.Squash blossoms are used to make different Mexican meals like quesadillas and soups. Squash blossoms are not just delicious but also have health benefits. They are full of vitamins A and C, with calcium and iron.

If you are in search of Mexican edible flowers to add taste to your recipes, enhancing their taste, squash flowers are always a favorite and termed the “queen of edible flowers” to take any dish to the next level.

Cooking with Mexican edible flowers

• Jamaica flower
• Pumpkin flower
• Lavender
• Bougainvillea
• Rose
• Geranium
• Dahlia
• Borage
• Cress
• Carnation
• Mallow
• Chamomile
• Dandelion
• Cempasuchil
• Basil
• Orange blossom
• Begonia
• Calendula
• Chrysanthemum
• Dill
• Hibiscus
• Sunflower
• Jazmine
• Daisy
• Rosemary 
• Violet
• Yucca

Growing Edible Flowers

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