Butterfly Pea Flower, Clatoria ternate a, is a plant that’s been used medicinally for hundreds of thousands of years in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Thai traditional medicine for everything from brain health to increasing libido. It is a prolific and vining wildflower endemic to equatorial Asia.
It is currently being studied for a multitude of healing benefits, including its potential to stop the growth of cancer cells and to regulate stress as an ada-totemic flower.
The flowers impart a beautiful blue color to foods and drinks that turn pink/purple with the addition of an acid, such as lemon juice. Butterfly Pea Flowers can be preserved and used for herbal medicine making and in culinary preparations. This plant is also a nitrogen fixing pea flower that amends the soil, helping everything else grow stronger in the garden.
Organic Ingredients:
- Butterfly Pea Flower, Clatoria ternate
The primary way I preserve my harvest each year is by drying the flowers, but I also make small batches of blue salt to add to treats and savory meals.
To make the salt, combine a roughly equal amount of flowers with fine grind sea salt and blend in a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder. Then I put the salt on a plate in a thin layer until completely dry. I then save it in a sealed and labeled jar.
Every year the salts come out with slightly different hues, and I just love seeing the differences!
Although I love the salt, the dried flowers are my main focus, and they can be used in teas and is a coloring for treats and savory meals. They can also be powered in a spice grinder.
I make a tincture with flowers, using vodka or gin so the indigo blue is retained. I save the roots, cleaning them and drying them to use in soups and alcohol tinctures.
Dosage and Storage:
Store in a cool place for many months or even a year or more.
Use:
Use as you would any salt to flavor a dish or in this case add a splash of color to savory foods.