Bring the glorious spring blooms into the kitchen and create this herbaceous salad with edible flowers. Delicate, aromatic and sophisticated, this recipe screams beautiful and may be even way too pretty to eat.
Coat almond slivers with ½ tsp of sweet paprika, ½ tbsp of olive oil and season with salt. Put it on a sheet pan and roast for 10 mins in the oven. When completed, remove the sheet pan and set aside to cool.
Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. De-string peas and blanch for 2 minutes.
Chop all the parsley, chervil, basil and mint to yield the relevant cup measurements.
Pick the leaves of the watercress to yield 1 cup. Discard the stalks.
Select some of the prettiest edible flowers for garnish and set aside.
Assembly
In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the herbs, watercress, peas, ½ of the roasted almonds, ½ of the pepitas, ½ of the sesame seeds and ½ of the edible flowers. Toss delicately with 1 tbsp olive oil, juice of ½ lemon and season generously with salt.
Select a nice serving platter and place the tossed salad in a nice big heap in the centre.
Place the rest of the edible flowers, pepitas, almond slivers and sesame seeds around the salad.
Place the edible flowers you had selected for garnish in strategic places so it’s nice and prominent.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve immediately.
Notes
You can add other herbs and leaves such as coriander, dill, chives, lamb lettuce and rocket.
For a little heat, coat the almond slivers with hot paprika instead of sweet paprika.
Sesame seeds can white or black and can even be substituted by nigella seeds.
You can substitute pepitas with sunflower seeds or perhaps even add to the salad.
You should be able to find edible flowers at the farmer’s market or a fine food grocer.