Beltane Recipes! (Patreon)

Here is a list of recipes you could make for Beltane! Do you have any recipes you’d like to share? Do you want to try out any of these?

Candied Flower Petals

Nothing says the Beltane season has arrived quite like flower blossoms—and what many people don't realize is that not only are they lovely to look at, they can taste good too. With a few fresh flowers, you can create a tasty treat. Use nasturtium, roses, pansies, lilac blossoms, violets, or any other edible flower for this recipe. Be warned, though—this is a bit time consuming, so plan accordingly.

Ingredients

Flower petals or blossoms, rinsed and dried

Water

1 egg white, beaten

Sugar

Directions

Combine a few drops of water with the egg white in a small bowl, and whisk them together. Hold the flower petal gently between two fingers and dip into the water mixture. Shake off excess water, and then sprinkle sugar on the petal. If your petals seem too soggy, use a paintbrush to brush the water mixture onto the petals instead.

As you complete each petal, place it on a sheet of wax paper to dry.

Drying time is anywhere from 12 hours to two days, depending on the humidity level in your home. If your flower petals aren't drying fast enough for you, place them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 150 degrees for a few hours.

Store your flower petals in an airtight container until it's time to use them. Use to decorate cakes and cookies, add to salads, or just to eat as a snack.

Dandelion Salad

1 Dishpan full of young dandelion leaves

4 Strips of bacon

1/2 c Sugar

2 T Flour

1 ea Egg beaten

1 t Salt

1/2 c Vinegar

1 1/2 c Water

3 ea Eggs, hard boiled, diced

Wash, drain, and cut up tender dandelion leaves. Brown bacon; remove drippings and crumble Combine sugar and flour. Add egg, salt, vinegar, and water and mix until smooth. Pour into bacon drippings and heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Pour warm dressing over dandelion. add crumbled bacon and hard boiled eggs. Toss lightly and serve immediately.

May Wine

*Woodruff is easy to grow in a shady spot in a garden or in a container. It is good ground cover and a pretty plant.

2 fifths semisweet white wine (such as sauterne)

1 cup woodruff leaves and blossoms, washed and stems removed

Early in the day the May wine is to be served, place the woodruff leaves and flowers in a container large enough to hold all the wine, then add the wine. Cover and chill in the refrigerator.

1 cup sliced strawberries

1 orange, thinly sliced

1 lemon, thinly sliced

1 fifth of extra dry Champagne

Just before serving, place a block of ice and the fruits in a punch bowl. Strain the white wine as you pour it over the ice and fruits. Add the Champagne. Decorate with woodruff leaves and white flowers that have been rinsed off. You can also make the punch without the fruit, and just pour it from a nice pitcher. Sounds yummy doesn’t it! 🙂

Asparagus and Goat Cheese Quiche

Asparagus is a tasty spring veggie, one of the first to peek out of the ground each year. Although asparagus crops appear as early as the Ostara sabbat, in many areas you can still find it fresh when Beltane rolls around. The trick to making a great asparagus dish is to not overcook it – if you do, it ends up mushy. This quiche is quick and easy to make and cooks just long enough that your asparagus should be nice and firm when you bite into it.

This version is made with no crust, for a gluten-free quiche. If you like pie crusts under your quiche, simply add the crust into the pie plate before pouring in the rest of the ingredients. If you don’t like goat cheese, you can substitute a cup of your favorite shredded cheese instead.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1 medium onion, diced

6 eggs

½ cup sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 lb fresh asparagus spears, chopped into 1” pieces

Optional add-ins: half a cup of ham or cooked bacon

Directions

Prepare a pie plate with non-stick cooking spray, and preheat your oven to 350. If you’re using a pie crust in your quiche, place it in the pie plate.

Melt the butter on low heat in a skillet, and sauté the garlic and onion until transparent. Add in the chopped asparagus, and sauté for about five minutes, just enough to tenderize the asparagus stalks.

While it’s heating up, combine the eggs, sour cream, salt and pepper, and goat cheese in a large bowl. Add the sautéed onion, garlic and asparagus to the eggs, and mix well.

If you're adding in bacon or ham, add it in now. Pour mixture into the pie plate.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for five to ten minutes before slicing and serving.

Note: this is a super-easy dish to prepare in advance – mix the ingredients ahead of time and refrigerate, and then just pour into your pie plate when you’re ready to cook it. Or, if you bake it in advance, store in the fridge for up to three days, slice, and reheat, covered in aluminum foil, for about fifteen minutes in the oven.

Peppery Green Beans

Beltane is all about fire and heat, so it's a good time to cook up something peppery. This green bean recipe is adapted from traditional Southern-style cooking. For a lower-fat alternative, substitute turkey bacon for the pork bacon.

Ingredients

1 lb bacon

1/2 cup butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 lb green beans

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Pepper (or more, if you like some zing!)

Directions

Cook the bacon until it's crispy, and then crumble it into small pieces. In a large saucepan, sauté the onions in the butter until they begin to brown. Add the green beans and the water, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about fifteen minutes. Drain the water from the beans, add salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Tip: If you'd like to make these in your slow cooker, use 2 Cups of water instead, and let the beans simmer for about three hours in the cooker.

Pansy Shortbread Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup room temperature butter

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 TBS dried egg whites

2TBS water

Pesticide free Pansies or violas

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pick flowers, rinse and pat dry. Put on paper towel to finish air drying.

Put flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix together. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter and vanilla until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling together.

Gather up crumbs into a ball and kneed together until smooth.

Roll out dough just scant of 1/4″ thick. Cut with cookie cutter. I used a fluted 2 1/2″cookie cutter.

Put cookies 2″ apart on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, until the bottom and sides are just starting to slightly brown and center of top is firm.

Take out of oven and cool on baking sheet.

Combine dried egg whites and water in small bowl. When cookies are cooled brush egg white mixture on one cookie at a time and top with pansey. Use your fingers to press the pansy down in the middle and smooth out all petals so they are firmly stuck to the cookie. Put a thin layer of egg white mixtrue on top of the pansy and smooth. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Return to parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove from oven. With your finger smooth out any petals that have shrivelled up. Set out on a cooling rack until the top of the cookie is completely dry.

More food correspondences

Let’s tackle the matter of Aphrodisiacs. There are several foods that people regard as a helpmate to passion, and there is even some science that backs up that idea. Some of the foods in this category include Asparagus, Avocado, Banana, Fig, Olive oil, Oysters, Peaches, Pineapple and Strawberries. The term Aphrodisiac is a derivative of the name Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love.

Bannocks: A traditional Scottish bread made with wheat flour at the hearth. It was simple, traveled well, and ties into the Beltane theme in its use of grain.

Berries: These give us vigor. Strawberries, in particular, are sacred to Freyr, the Scandinavian fertility God. Dip them in chocolate and feed them to each other.

Cherries: Cherries represent the feminine energies. People around the world use them for attracting suitable mates.

Dairy: Dairy products are another Goddess component that represents new life.

Grain Food: (Bread, cereal, oatmeal): Grains nurture us and open our Heart Chakra.

Honey: An ancient food sacred to Demeter in Greece and Ra in Egypt. Honey brings fulfilment and overall satisfaction.

Hot flavors (Curry, hot sauce, garlic, etc.): Hot spices increase our metabolism and are said to induce lust or promote growth.

Paprica (Smoked): Smoky Paprika tastes a bit of the Fire Element. It boosts energy and inspires love.

Radish: Ramps up energy through the Sacral Chakra for sexual prowess.

Rhubarb: Giving your lover Rhubarb places him or her under a captivating spell.

Wine (May Bowl): Typically a mead infused with berries or sweet woodruff specifically for Beltane.

Sources:

https://www.ravenandcrone.com/catalog/a2/Beltane,-May-Day,-Food-Recipes/article_info.html

https://www.learnreligions.com/recipes-for-the-beltane-sabbat-4126076