Nasturtium Recipe Collection—Our Favorite Ways to Use Them in Cooking

We recently shared all of the reasons you’ll want to include nasturtiums in your greenhouse growing plan and our best tips for cultivating them in our article, Nasturtiums: Edible, Gorgeous Companion Plants. Now, we’d like to demonstrate some of our favorite ways to eat them in this Nasturtium Recipe Collection.

How to Use Nasturtium Flowers

The beautiful edible flowers alone can dress up any meal. Use them raw to garnish salads or even to decorate an elegant cake. Feature them as the star in these Spring Rolls with Thai Peanut Sauce.

There are many other flowers you may already be growing that are edible such as pansies and violets, roses, borage, clover, dandelions, hibiscus, honeysuckle, and lavender to name a few. Stay safe. Only eat flowers you can positively identify. Be sure you know where your flowers came from, preferably your Growing Dome garden. Avoid harvesting wildflowers along roadsides that may have been sprayed by herbicides or contaminated by other chemical runoff.

What parts of nasturtium are edible?

Did you know that not only are the flowers edible but the leaves and young, green seeds are as well?

Learn how to use the leaves to make our Nasturtium Pesto to top flatbread, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and more.

Nasturtium Recipe for Pickled Seeds

The tender young seeds can be picked and pickled. Use in recipes as you would a caper. The nasturtium seeds will have a more peppery, wasabi-like kick.

Make a quick fridge pickle: For one cup of harvested nasturtium seeds, mix 1 cup of vinegar (white or apple cider or for a milder tang, a half-and-half solution with equal parts water and vinegar), 1 teaspoon to a tablespoon of salt to taste, and a pinch of sugar in a non-reactive pot and bring to a boil.

Place the green nasturtium seeds in a clean, sterile pint jar and add in your favorite pickling spices: dill weed or seed, black pepper, garlic cloves, allspice berries, cloves, bay leaf, or any combo thereof. Pour the vinegar solution over the seeds, cap, and let cool. Place in the fridge and allow at least a week or two for the vinegar to work its magic. It should last several months in the refrigerator.

For more tips or tricks, check out these pickled nasturtium recipes from The Spruce Eats, Garden Betty, and Hilda’s Kitchen Blog.

Remember to not over-harvest your flowers or seeds if you want the plants to reseed themselves.

How do you like to enjoy nasturtiums? Share your go-to recipes in the comments below.