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Simple Uses for Dahlias

 

When you have a large crop of dahlias from the garden or market, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them.  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 dahlias:


  • Sauté or stirfry the petals and tubers with garlic.



  • Cook the tubers with garlic and hot grains such as rice or quinoa.  In other words, the dahlia tubers and garlic are in the pot with the grains while the grains are cooking.

  • Add the petals to egg dishes such as quiches and scrambles.

  • Add the tubers and petals to soups and broths.

  • Add the petals to sandwiches.


  • Add the petals to other salads.

  • Make infused vinegar.  Dahlia petal vinegar can be used as a salad dressing.  Petals can be infused in vinegar alone or with other herbs such as peppermint, echinacea, lemon balm, or garlic.

  • Make infused oil.  Dahlia petals can be infused into oils such as coconut or jojoba oil, which can be further processed into products such as lotions and salves that take advantage of dahlias' emollient properties.  Learn more about herbal oils here.

  • Make a tea.  Dahlia flower petals can be made into an infusion or added to an infusion blend.  Dahlia tubers (roots) can be decocted or added to a decoction blend.

  • Make a tincture with the petals.  The suggested herb:solvent ratio for a dahlia petal tincture is 1:5 in 40% alcohol.





Further Reading

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


Dahlias are also featured in these articles:


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