Homemade Candied Violets Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to prepare violets to eat? ›

Tips for Cooking With Violets

Eat them raw: These delicate beauties don't cook well and are better served raw. Clip as much as you can of the green stem end of the blossom without making the petals fall off. If that happens anyway, just trim off the petals to create a violet-colored confetti on your dish.

To make egg-free or vegan candied violets use lightly beaten aquafaba, which is the cooking liquid leftover from cooking chickpeas or in canned chickpeas. Aquafaba has similar properties to egg whites and works just as well as them in this recipe.

To prepare, fill a Mason jar to the top with violets. Once filled, pour vodka over the flowers until they are submerged. Put a lid on the jar and shake daily for several days, up to one week. Strain and store in amber glass dropper bottle in a dark place.

Most recipes for candied flowers use egg whites. Here is an alternative recipe that uses simple syrup and super fine powdered sugar instead. To start, rub the petals gently between your fingers to help the simple syrup stick.

The flowers, leaves and stems can all be eaten and used as medicine, the rhizomes (roots) have also been used, but very cautiously and only in small amounts. I choose to leave the roots alone for this reason and also to keep the life cycle of the plant intact.

Violet is cooling and moistening and is used internally as a blood cleanser, respiratory remedy, and lymphatic stimulant. It is taken as a tea or syrup, and can also be eaten for its medicine. The exact dosage is not especially important since it can safely be consumed in large quantities.

Drying violets is super easy! Wash them using the method above, and then lay them on a towel over a drying rack and set them in a dry place for 4-7 days. Once they are fully dry, place them in an airtight container, like these cute jelly jars, and store in a dark cupboard.

Make Fresh Violet Tea:

Steep fresh violets directly to make tea. Add 2-3 teaspoons fresh violet flowers to 1 cup of boiling water. If making a teapot, add as many flowers as cups to be made. Allow to steep for five minutes, strain and serve.

African violets do best at around 6.5 to 6.8. Beware of coffee and particularly tea as they are quite acidic. And egg shells, although they contain calcium, are going to increase the pH, although only slightly. This effects on the pH could be ameliorated, though, by leaching regularly.

Overview. Sweet violet is an herb. The root and parts that grow above the ground are used to make medicine. Sweet violet is used for stress, fatigue, insomnia, symptoms of menopause, depression, common cold, influenza, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.

What is violet tincture good for? ›

In herbal combinations, sweet violet is used for breathing problems including sudden (acute) and ongoing (chronic) bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, “dust-damaged” lungs, swelling (inflammation) of the respiratory tract, cold and flu symptoms, hoarseness, cough, and chest congestion.

Pour over enough freshly boiled water to cover the flowers. Cover and leave to steep for 24 hours. The next day, strain off the liquid, every last drop, and measure it. For every millilitre of liquid, add a gram of sugar, or if using cups, match the cup size so the amount of liquid and sugar is the same.

Pour a lightly beaten (but not frothy) egg white into a saucer. Have another saucer of caster sugar beside it. Using tweezers, dip the flower heads or petals first into the egg white and then into the sugar. Use a fine paintbrush to tease the sugar into any crinkles and hollows within the flower.

Mix sugar and flowers. Add water and stir together. Add to mold and be sure to PACK it in. Let dry overnight and you can pop them out!

Harvesting wild violet

Pick them fresh for salads or freeze them while you continue to collect enough of the desired quantity for an infused vinegar or syrup recipe. Confident foragers will find that leaves are great for salads, delicious in soup, or eaten as cooked greens.

But, in order to get started, the first step is always to wash your violets. Fill a small bowl with cold water; add your violets, swish around a few times, then lift the violets from the bowl and transfer to a strainer – this will leave the grit at the bottom of the bowl.

Wild Violets are not poisonous to dogs – or people!

When you are ready to eat the flowers wash them gently in cool water, shaking the flower to remove any excess water. Pat them dry on a paper towel. Smaller flowers such as violas can be eaten whole. For larger flowers, petals are where the flavour is, so it is best to remove the sepal, stamens and pistil.