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Simple Uses for Echinacea

 

When you have a large crop of echinacea from the garden or market, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it.  You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.


Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple!  Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve echinacea:


  • Add the whole plant to soups and broths.

  • Add the whole plant to sautés and stirfry.


  • Add the petals and leaves to other salads.

  • Make a tea.  Echinacea root is best prepared as a decoction.  Echinacea flowers and leaves are best prepared as an infusion.

  • Add the roots to a decoction blend.  Echinacea roots go well with other roots and barks such as white pine bark, ginger, astragalus, and eleuthero or with berries such as elderberries or hawthorn berries.

  • Add the flowers and leaves to an infusion blend.  Although not as potent, echinacea aerial parts contain many of the same constituents as the roots.  Get creative with your blends!  Some pairing suggestions are thyme, rose petals, St. John's wort, tulsi, sage, and ginkgo.


  • Make infused vinegar.  Echinacea can be infused in vinegar by itself or with other herbs such as garlic, leeks, sage, thyme, and/or lemon verbena.

  • Make an herbal honey.  An herbal honey is a delicious way to preserve the herbal properties of your echinacea, extend its shelf life, and get benefits of honey too.

  • Make herbal candy.

  • Make a tincture.  The suggested herb:solvent ratio for an echinacea tincture is 1:5 in 40% alcohol.


  • Freeze it to save it for later.  Echinacea roots in particular are well-preserved by freezing.



Further Reading

Growing echinacea?  Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.


Echinacea is also featured in these articles:


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