Nowadays, the passion for carving has become very fashionable - cutting out all kinds of butterflies, flowers and other festive table decorations from vegetables. From our article you will learn how to make a lily from an onion, and thanks to step by step wizard class you can easily repeat it yourself. The delicate flower is great for decorating salads and adding zest to hot dishes, such as roast poultry or meat.
Just imagine how beautiful a rosy hen will look surrounded by several snow-white lilies! And any salad will sparkle in a new way, you just need to decorate it with a bouquet of specially selected small flowers.
To create a flower we only need a small fresh and dense bulb, a sharp miniature carving knife and a steady hand!
Step-by-step execution
So let's get started!
Step 1
The onion must be specially prepared - it must be completely fresh, with grown green feathers. We will cut off most of it, but the remaining ones will become the lily’s stem, so we can’t do without them.
We peel off the husks, and what remains before us is a strong white onion with roots on one side and regrown greenery on the other.
Step 2
We cut off the feathers at a height of 4-5 cm from the base, and remove the roots, retreating about one centimeter. On the resulting area we make five deep cuts from the center. You need to cut through the onion more towards the edge than at the center.
Then, stepping back exactly halfway from the cut, cut off the flesh at an angle of 45 degrees. We remove the cut sector - it is not needed, and repeat the “corner” cut procedure. From the same point we remove the excess with a knife, but in the other direction, thus forming the first petal.
We proceed in the same way with the remaining parts of the flower.
Step 3
We straighten the petals with our hands, as if separating them from each other, and take out the entire inner part, leaving only one outer layer.
After this, we can arm ourselves with yellow liquid food coloring and apply it to the lower part of the lily from the inside with a regular brush.
We also take out and paint the remaining flowers. Thus, from one small onion we got not one, but several beautiful flowers at once! You can put one inside the other, unfolding the petals in a checkerboard pattern, or you can serve each one on its own.
Well, friends, we have a lily from an onion! See, nothing complicated! The only thing that matters is the desire to try and learn!
Which festive table do without herring under a fur coat or Olivier? Do you know how to easily and simply decorate these and other salads? You need to buy several small bulbs and cut flowers from them. Easy and simple!
How to make flowers from onions
To cut out a flower, take a small, elongated onion head.
Trim the onion by about 5 mm on both sides. Peel off the husks.
Without cutting all the way through, cut the onion in half, starting from the point where the feather grows and working down to the bottom.
Then, without cutting to the end, make a perpendicular cut - you will get 4 sectors.
Cut each quarter into several pieces, forming petals.
Place the bulb in cold water with ice - the chrysanthemum should open.
For a flower, you can take either a white or a red onion. The smaller the head, the more spectacular the onion flower comes out. Try to choose thin-walled bulbs, then the petals will turn out thin and open more beautifully.
If the cuts are not made deep enough, the onion flower will not bloom well, and if the cuts are made too deep, the chrysanthemum will fall apart. Place the onion flower in water so that the liquid completely covers it. The time for chrysanthemums to “bloom” depends on the type of onion. This can take either 40 minutes or 8 hours.
To add brightness to an onion flower, you can dip the tips of a blossoming chrysanthemum in beet juice, yellow saffron infusion, or red wine.
A series of delicious holidays is coming soon. It's time to prepare for them, to hone your skills in decorating dishes. I make these flowers tasty: in addition to sugar and vinegar, I sprinkle salt into the water so that the solution is pleasant. Then the onion becomes crispy and very delicate taste. There is an eternal battle for this chrysanthemum: everyone wants to eat it right away))))
Compound:
- red onion ~ 1 pc.
- vinegar and sugar optional
Preparation:
Take a peeled onion, cut off the top and bottom (approximately 0.5 cm).
Cut the onion into 16 pieces, leaving about 0.5 cm short of the base.
Place the onion in any deep container, pour room water into it
temperature. The bulb should be completely covered with water. Add vinegar
and sugar to taste. After an hour or two, depending on the type of onion, the chrysanthemum
must “open up”.
Onion chrysanthemum can be used to decorate salads,
or as a stand-alone snack.
Decorate and even the simplest dishes will definitely not go unnoticed!
Onion chrysanthemum is made from a small round onion. Both white and red onions will do. A small bulb produces a more beautiful flower.
It is better to choose a thin-walled bulb, in this case the petals are thinner and open more beautifully. We clean the onion and cut off its top and bottom by about 0.5 cm.
Carefully cut the onion from the top side with a sharp thin knife almost in half, not cutting about 0.5 cm to the end.
Then again in the same way - in half.
Continue cutting the onion into as many pieces as possible. Of course, it is better to make as many cuts as possible. It must be borne in mind that the quality of our flower depends on the depth of the cuts: if the cuts are not deep enough, the chrysanthemum will bloom poorly, and if the cuts are too deep, it will fall apart.
Place the onion in water room temperature so that the water completely covers the onion. On average, after about 1-1.5 hours our must "bloom". Depending on the type of onion, this time can range from 40 minutes to a couple of hours.
To add brightness to the chrysanthemum, you can dip its tips in beet juice, squeezed from raw pureed beets. Depending on the desire and purpose, the flower can be colored with any other food coloring - brightly colored juice, say, blackcurrant or cherry, yellow saffron solution, red wine, etc.
Here she is, our beauty - 
Step 1. Making a lily from an onion.
Take a flat onion (preferably not a very large one) and peel it. We take a sharp knife, place the onion up with the side where its stems grew, down with the root and carefully cut the onion across - without cutting about a centimeter to the end. Rotate the onion 90 degrees and cut again.
And thus, we turn the onion and cut it without cutting it to the end. The more often the cuts are made, the more beautiful the petals will turn out. Just don't overdo it ;)
So we have a cut onion. Where is the lily, you ask:) In order for our flower to bloom, it needs to be placed in water for an hour or two.
If you add apple cider vinegar and salt to the water, the flower will also be pickled and quite tasty.
We take the bulb out of the water and begin to straighten the petals a little with our hands. Try not to pull too hard to avoid tearing it off. Do it carefully.
Step 2. Color our lily.
You can dye with natural and artificial dyes. Natural dyes are beets and turmeric. They produce pink and orange colors. Onions colored with beet juice come out a very beautiful color. And the lily turns out just like a real one.
To color the flower, pour 1-2 tablespoons of beet juice. You can get juice like this: grate the beets and squeeze them lightly. We take the onion out of our water and move the leaves through the juice. Then we put it back into the water and add juice there. And let it lie there for 10 minutes.
When you remove the flower, lightly straighten the petals again and place the lily on a paper towel to drain excess water.
That's it, our onion lily is ready! It's time to go decorate the dishes!
Food should not only be tasty, but also beautifully presented. After all, first we eat with our eyes, and then we start the meal itself. You can simply decorate this or that dish with a sprig of herbs, but flowers made from whole vegetables will look much more beautiful. Bright roses, chrysanthemums, and daisies will turn any lunch into a celebration.
Any hard vegetables are suitable for flowers: cucumbers, daikon, radishes, tomatoes, onions, sweet pepper. You don’t have to be perfect at carving to make a beautiful flower craft. It is enough to learn a few lessons on the formation of flowers and every housewife will be able to aesthetically serve any ordinary dish. Even the usual “Herring under a fur coat” or “Olivier” will sparkle differently if a bouquet of beetroot or carrot roses is on top. Next, we will take a step-by-step look at how simple vegetable flowers are made.
An ordinary bulb can easily turn into a gorgeous white chrysanthemum. This flower can be used to decorate a salad or main dish.
You will need:
- 1 small onion;
- water at room temperature.
Manufacturing process:
- For chrysanthemums, a small, dense onion is suitable. It is desirable that the onion be thin-walled. You can take white, pink or blue onions. Accordingly, you will get flowers of different colors.
- Remove the peel from the onion, cut off the top and root. Using a sharp knife, cut the onion lengthwise, not cutting 0.5 cm to the bottom edge of the onion. When cutting, we start from the top edge, where the feather usually grows. Now we make another longitudinal cut perpendicular to the first one. The result is an onion almost cut into 4 parts.
- We cut each quarter into several petals, moving the knife in the same direction (from top to bottom, without cutting to the end). We try to make the cuts carefully so as not to damage the adjacent petals.
The notches should be deep enough to make the flower lush. But if you cut too much, the bud will simply fall apart and will not hold its shape.
- Pour water at room temperature into a deep bowl, place the onion in it so that the liquid completely covers it. Leave for one and a half hours. Gradually the onion will bloom in water and turn into a lush chrysanthemum, as in the photo
- Depending on the type of onion, it may take more or less time to open. If time is running out, you can carefully spread the petals with your fingers, then the flower will be ready even earlier.
Fresh cucumber rose
A beautiful rose can decorate any salad or place it in the center of a plate with sliced meat or vegetables. Anyone can make such a flower, even those very far from cooking and carving.
You will need:
- 1 long fresh cucumber;
- vegetable peeler;
- toothpicks.
Manufacturing process:
- From a washed, dried cucumber, we begin to cut thin longitudinal strips with a vegetable peeler, from which we will subsequently form petals. We won't need the very first strip of skin.
- Slowly cut the strips until we reach the core with the seeds. Because the cut parts with seeds will fall apart, then we turn the vegetable over on the other side. Cut strip by strip again. One medium cucumber yields 16-20 pieces.
- We select the narrowest and shortest strip, roll it into a tube with a slight spiral offset, forming the middle of the flower.
- Now we form the first petal. Without letting go of the center of the bud from your hand, take a strip of cucumber with your free hand and wrap one end of it behind the spiral tube. A little lower we make a bend away from ourselves, lowering the second end to the base of the bud. We wrap the remaining end of the strip around the base of the rose as low as possible. The petal is ready.
- We apply the next strip to the base of the first petal, bend it in the same way away from ourselves and wrap the tip around the bottom of the flower. We try to form subsequent petals in a checkerboard pattern so that the base of the previous petal is covered by the next one. Because Since the vegetable strips are covered with sticky cucumber juice, the petals will easily stick together. If we come across blanks that are too long, we shorten them as we work.
- Don't worry if somewhere the flower turns out to be asymmetrical or crooked, this will give the rose a more natural shape. To form one bud we will need about 11-12 petals.
- At the end of the work, the flower can be secured with a toothpick, supplemented with several leaves from the same cucumber or several sprigs of parsley.
Using the same scheme, you can make roses from daikon, carrots, pickles, etc.
The orange root vegetable makes very beautiful bright flowers, which do not require additional coloring. You can easily make a beautiful lily from a small carrot in a matter of minutes. It can be used to decorate a salad, aspic or snack cake.
You will need:
- 1 long carrot;
- sharp knife.
Manufacturing process:
- Wash the carrots and peel them. We make sure that there are no damage or wormholes on the carrot. We cut off the top and bottom parts of the root vegetable to make a barrel. Cutting off the excess, we form a pentagon from the carrots.
- Armed with a sharp knife, we cut off a thin petal strip from each edge, not cutting a little to the very bottom. We sharpen each petal at the ends, cutting off the excess at the corners.
- We cut off the next row of petals, but not from the place where the first ones were cut off, but slightly moving to the side. The petals should be staggered. Thus, we cut out 3-4 rows of petals depending on the thickness of the carrot.
- We round the remaining central part to form a cone. At this point our lily is ready. The same white lily can be cut from daikon.
Pink beet bud
If you need to beautifully decorate a dish with roses, then the most beautiful rose comes from table beets. The root crop has a bright color that smoothly changes shades.
You will need:
- 1 large beetroot;
- small kitchen knife with a thin blade.
Manufacturing process:
- First, let's prepare the vegetable for work. Wash the beets thoroughly and clean them. Now we give it the desired shape. On one side we outline the base of the bud. We give it a conical forum, cutting off all excess. The petals will be cut along the cone, the second part remains round.
- We outline the place where the first lower petal will be located. Holding the root vegetable firmly, we cut off the first petal, not cutting 1-0.5 cm to the end. Moving from the center along the wall of the cone to its base. Closer to the base, the petal should thicken, and we try to make the edge very thin.
- We cut out all the excess from under the petal. To do this, place the knife at an acute angle to the inside of the cut petal and cut off what is unnecessary. This way we create additional space between the rows of petals. We go around the circle, cutting off the petals - the first row is ready.
- Now we begin to cut the second row, just forming the petals in a checkerboard pattern relative to the first row. We also remove excess pulp. If necessary, trim and round the edges of the petals.
- We make the third level in the same way, only gradually reducing the size of the petals and changing their angle of inclination, because the cone will become increasingly truncated. The petals must be handled with extreme caution, because... They are very fragile and can break off with one careless movement.
- Having made 4 levels, we proceed to making the center of the bud. We also cut out petals from it, only they turn out to be quite small.
- We inspect the bud for the last time and straighten the petals. The pink beet bud is ready.
Sweet pepper flower
Using peppers of different sizes and colors, you can get a beautiful floral bouquet that you can even snack on.
You will need:
- 1 pod of sweet pepper with a tail;
- cold water;
- small kitchen knife.
Manufacturing process:
- Taking the pepper by the tail, we make cuts with a sharp knife. We move from the top of the pod to its base, without cutting a couple of centimeters to the tail. Cut all the pepper pulp into thin strips, moving in a circle.
- We cut each resulting narrow petal lengthwise into two more parts. Therefore, it is better to take meaty peppers. If we cut off only the peel, it will curl into a circle. And if a little pulp remains on the peel, then both petals will be straight.
- When chopping the vegetable is finished, immerse the pepper in cold water for a quarter of an hour. The petals in the water will open and spread apart, making the flower voluminous and beautiful. If we leave only the skin, it will curl into a ring, forming beautiful curls along the radius of the flower. Such an elegant flower will become a real decoration of the festive table.
Edible carrot flower
The blanks for this fabulous flower are cut out very simply. Then they are collected with a toothpick and the decoration is ready. And to make the flower tasty to eat, the petals are kept in a marinade.
You will need:
- 1 large thick carrot;
- salt and vinegar to taste;
- water;
- sharp knife;
- toothpick;
- vegetable peeler;
- 1 small onion.
Manufacturing process:
- Wash the carrots, peel them, and make an oblique cut. Using a vegetable peeler, cut thin petals along this cut.
- Cut each petal in half from one edge to the center of the workpiece. At this point, the petal will fold and prick onto a toothpick during assembly.
- From the opposite side along the edge to the center of the workpiece, we cut off narrow strips on both sides of the top of the petal. For one flower we make 4 large petals and 4 slightly smaller ones.
- So, let's start collecting the flower. First we put the large petals on the edge of the toothpick. To do this, take the first piece, string first one half of the part cut in half onto the edge of a toothpick, and then the other. Thanks to this, the petal takes on the shape of a boat. The cut off antennae stick out. We string all 4 large petals, placing them opposite each other.
- Now we also put on smaller petals, but we arrange them in a checkerboard pattern. Place a piece of white onion on the end of a toothpick to imitate the core of a flower.
- To make the flowers tastier, add table vinegar and salt to taste to boiled chilled water. Mix everything well, put our flowers in there for an hour. Decorations marinated in this way can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.
The bright red hot pepper antarium looks very impressive on the table. A dish decorated with such a flower will not go unnoticed. And making such a decoration is not at all difficult.
You will need:
- 1 pod of hot pepper;
- scissors;
- sharp knife.
Manufacturing process:
- We wear rubber gloves to avoid getting burns when working with hot pepper. Wash and dry the pepper.
- Using a sharp knife, make a longitudinal cut along one of the walls. We cut off the pulp around the stalk, cut out the tail along with the core on which the seeds are attached. You need to act carefully so that the seeds do not fall out, because... they will occupy a central place in our craft.
- We unroll the pepper on a board and give it the shape of an antarium. To do this, it is enough to round the bottom of the workpiece and slightly trim the top so that it becomes pyramidal in shape with a rounded edge.
- The final touch remains. Having retreated 2-3 cm from the base of the workpiece, we make a puncture in the center on the front shiny side. We insert the tail of the pepper into it, and the core with the seeds remains on top, turning into a flower pistil. The antarium is ready.
A white papillot made from daikon with a bright orange core looks very bright in spring. That's why it's good to decorate with it holiday dishes to March 8 and Easter.
You will need:
- 1 daikon;
- 1 carrot;
- salt;
- water;
- sharp knife.
Manufacturing process:
- Wash the daikon and remove the peel. Cut off the lower tapering part and the tip. You should get a barrel-shaped piece 10-12 cm high.
- Separately, prepare a steep salt solution in a bowl and place the daikon preparation there for an hour. After this, the radish pulp will soften and will be easy to cut.
- Now place the barrel on its side on a cutting board. We begin to cut a strip of 2 mm thick and 10 cm long in a circle with a sharp knife.
- Fold the resulting ribbon in half lengthwise. We take a sharp knife and start making cuts from the side of the bend, without cutting 1 cm to the end. We make cuts in increments of 0.5-0.7 cm.
- We twist the fringe into a flower and chop it off with a toothpick.
- We perform the same operation with carrots to obtain a fringe to form the center of the curler. We attach the orange part to the center of the flower with a toothpick. The flower is ready.
A very effective decoration for any leek dish.
You will need:
Manufacturing process:
- Take a fresh onion stalk, wash it thoroughly, and separate one outer leaf. Fold it in half along its entire length.
- Using a sharp knife, make cuts from the side of the bend, not cutting 1 cm to the edge. We make cuts every 0.5 cm.
- We roll the workpiece into a spiral, starting from the light green part of the sheet. Then the flower will be light inside, and will gradually darken towards the edges.
- We make petals from the wide part of the stem by bending equal sections of the stem in half.
- Attach 6 petals to the spiral-twisted core with toothpicks. At this point, the work on the flower can be considered completed.
To ensure that your own vegetable flowers do not disappoint you, choose fruits with a dense structure. Also, many vegetables tend to dry out quickly when cut, so you should not make vegetable flowers long before serving. As a last resort, store the flowers in the refrigerator until ready to serve. If you follow these simple rules, your dishes and decorations will impress even the most picky guest. Bon appetit everyone!
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