Tasty and Spectacular: Cooking With Daylily Flowers

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Florist Ephy
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Hemerocallis or day lily, also known as daylily, is flowering plant cultivated mostly for its beautiful flowers. These plants commonly blossom between late spring and midsummer featuring delicate, trumpet-shaped flowers with colors ranging from yellow to orange. Daylilies flowers are not only spectacular but also edible and very tasty. When cooking with daylily flowers, it is always advisable to factor in their delicate nature to avoid losing their nutritive value and flavor. To enjoy their full goodness, you should eat the flowers the same day they are picked. Alternatively, you can buy them dried on Amazon or at your local Asian food market.

At this juncture, it is important to note that daylilies should never be confused with regular lilies or true lilies (Lilium). Daylilies are not true lilies. While day lilies have six petals in two layers of three, regular lilies have six petals with six anthers. In addition, day lily flowers bloom only for a day while regular lily flowers can last a week or more.

The two lilies may look alike in some aspects and even share a name, but that is as far as their similarities go. To avoid confusion, you should research each variety before eating it.

Day lily recipes

Daylily mushroom stir-fry
Ingredients
1 cup dried day lily petals
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
¼ cup black mushrooms
2/3 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tofu, cut into bite size
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
1/3 cup
Process: Soak the petals in cold water. Clean and cut the stem ends. Soak black mushroom in warm water to clean them, but avoid washing them too hard to avoid losing their flavor. Mix cornstarch and water and set aside. Heat the oil in a pan, add the mushrooms and stir until you can smell their sweet aroma. Toss in daylilies and tofu. Continue stir-frying. Pour sugar, soy sauce, and cornstarch mix. Stir until the mixture thickens. Add sesame oil to the mixture, take off the heat and serve.

Green pepper and eggs with day lily
Ingredients
2 cups fresh daylily petals
½ cup green bell pepper, cut into thin slices
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon water
3 cups cooked rice
Process: Start by washing day lily petals in cold water until clean. Steam the clean petals for 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, heat oil in a pan over high heat, add in the eggs and cook until brown. Make a well in the pan and toss in the ginger, stir until the mixture gets aromatic. Put in green peppers and stir. Pour in vinegar, water and soy sauce while stirring. Add day lilies, stir to mix well. Serve with hot rice.

There you have it! Day lilies are good for your eyes and yummy on your plate. And now that you have a few recipes to try out, why not get down to cooking with daylily flowers?

Cooking with daylily flowers. These flowers are spectacular and very tasty

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