It would be a pity to throw them away: Use the beautiful flowers of the African-Blue-Basil to create a nice vinegar!
For some years now, we are growing the African-Blue-Basil in our garden. It’s a really nice, strong tasting kind of basil with beautiful purple leaves and flowers. But there is always the question: Do we want the leaves to become larger or should we let the plant grow flowers? Because when basil starts to bloom, the leaves grow more slowly and there is a loss of quality and flavor.
This year, we decided to let the plant grow flowers and use them to create a lovely vinegar. You can use the flavored vinegar afterwards to prepare extraordinary dressings (in particular for tomato salads or raw beetroot).
Ingredients
- Glass jar
- 10-12 stalks of African-Blue-Basil flowers
- 500 ml red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Prepare a 500 ml glass jar by sterilizing it with boiling water.
- Wash the African-Blue-Basil flowers gently, dry them and put them into the jar.
- Pour 500 ml of red wine vinegar into the jar and make sure that all the flowers are covered.
- Close the jar thoroughly and place it for 4 weeks in a dark, cold room.
- After 4 weeks, open the jar and pass its content through a sieve to filter out all the flowers.
- Pour the flavored vinegar into a sterilized bottle.
Now the vinegar is ready to use! Enjoy!