When spring approaches, many gardeners long for the first vegetables from their own green paradise. You don't have to wait long once you have planted daylilies. Its leafy shoots can be harvested as early as March/April. But not only they are edible…

All parts of the daylily are edible and a decorative, tasty ingredient

Daylilies - the insider tip of Chinese cuisine

Anyone who has thought that daylilies are poisonous is wrong. In East Asia, these plants - the yellow-red daylily being an outstanding example - are extremely popular in the kitchen. Chinese cuisine in particular has appreciated daylilies for thousands of years. The daylilies are grown specifically for the purpose of being eaten!

Which parts of the plant are edible?

All parts of the plant can be eaten. The buds and leaf shoots are particularly popular. You can also cook a lot with the flowers. More rarely, the more mature leaves, roots and seeds of the daylily are used in cooking.

How do buds, flowers, leaves and roots taste?

The buds taste crisp, fresh and slightly sweet. The flowers have a pleasant sweet note when raw, resulting from the nectar. They taste good even when dried. The leaves are sweet and slightly leek-spicy and the roots are reminiscent of nuts or chestnuts in taste and potatoes in consistency.

Preparation and recipes with daylilies

This is how the parts of the plant are usually prepared:

  • Buds: raw, fried, boiled, roasted, pickled, baked
  • blossomed flowers: raw, dried, cooked
  • Leaf sprouts: raw, cooked
  • ripe leaves: stewed, boiled
  • Roots: raw (grated), cooked
  • Seeds: crushed, ground

The following recipe ideas for the plant parts of the daylilies are common:

  • Eat the buds raw or fry them in oil
  • Blossoms for salads, yoghurt, quark, ice cream, cakes, toppings, rice dishes, soups, filled with minced meat
  • Leaf sprouts for soups (prepare like asparagus)
  • ripe leaves for salads, soups, with pasta, stewed in salted water
  • Roots for salads, potato substitutes, casseroles, raw and grated in salads
  • Seeds crushed in soups

tips and tricks

Before eating the flowers, the stamens in the middle should be removed. They are not very tasty and have an unpleasant note. Without them, the flowers taste better.

Category:

Herbs