Common Name: Borage
Scientific Name: Borago officinalis
Color: Clear sky-blue, star-shaped flowers with a dark central eye
Blooming Time: Late spring to early summer
Fresh edible flower with a clean, cucumber-like flavour, used primarily raw for its cooling freshness and bright blue colour in salads, drinks, and light dishes.
Flavour Profile
Fresh, green, and unexpectedly crisp, with a flavour often compared to cucumber skin and cool water.
The taste is light and clean rather than floral, offering freshness without sweetness or perfume.
Culinary Uses
Preparations:
Best used fresh. Whole flowers are scattered over salads, chilled soups, soft cheeses, buttered vegetables, and cold desserts. They also hold their shape surprisingly well in baking — pressed gently into breads, biscuits, and savoury pastries, where they retain colour and add a graphic, almost botanical presence. Borage flowers are also frozen into ice cubes for drinks, where their blue remains striking and clear.
Pairings:
Pairs naturally with dairy, citrus, fruits, cucumber, peas, young greens, yogurt, fresh herbs, and light syrups. Its neutrality allows it to refresh richer elements without competing.
Kitchen Note:
Borage flowers are fragile. Add them at the last moment and avoid heat, which quickly dulls both their colour and texture.
Historical & Cultural Notes
Borage has been cultivated since antiquity across the Mediterranean and Europe, valued as much for its leaves as for its flowers. In medieval kitchens, it was associated with courage and vitality, often used in wines and cooling preparations.
Its name comes from medieval Latin borrago, possibly from borra, meaning “rough hair,” describing the plant’s softly bristled leaves, or from the Arabic abū l-ʕaraq, “father of sweat,” reflecting its traditional cooling reputation.
Sensory Profile
Sight: Vivid blue stars held above rough, pale-green leaves; unmistakable even at a distance.
Touch: Delicate petals contrasted by a slightly fuzzy stem and foliage.
Smell: Clean and green, faintly vegetal rather than floral.
Taste: Cool, mild, and refreshing, with no lingering sweetness.
Botanical Note
While both the flowers and young leaves of this plant are edible, the blossoms are preferred in culinary use for their clarity of colour and mild flavour.
Fun Fact
Borage flowers retain their shape remarkably well when frozen, making them one of the few edible blooms that can be preserved visually — suspended in ice like small fragments of sky.