How to make table decorations from vegetables. DIY vegetable flowers, master class
How to make a cooked dish even more attractive? How to create an atmosphere of joy and beauty?
There are simple and accessible techniques for decorating festive dishes. You will need the most common products, a minimum of costs and a minimum of time. Flowers from vegetables are a win-win option.
Difficulty level - for beginners. Start right now to make the world around you brighter and more interesting!
- Follow the basic rules for combining a color palette and products. Feel free to use contrast.
- It is preferable to decorate salads (and dishes in general) with those products that are part of the salad itself or are combined with its components.
- If the decoration is intended for cutting, then it is better to take a plain plate, without a pattern, so that it does not interrupt the composition.
Master class "Flowers from vegetables with their own hands"
Attention! Flowers can be made in advance and immersed in water, and then, immediately before serving the dish on the table, decorate a salad or sliced with them.
Take a can (for example, from beer), cut out a rectangle with scissors and bend it in half (see photo). Such a simple device will help you in creating a cabbage flower.
Move from the outer layer to the center.
Dip the finished flower for better preservation in water.
Lush aster is ready!
Divide the peeled carrot into 2 parts. The smaller part is the base of the future flower, curly petals are made from the long part. It is convenient to use a special cannelling knife - it applies decorative grooves to vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, cuts cucumbers, radishes, carrots with thin chips.
Petals are inserted into the notches of the base in a circle. This can be done in any order.
A bright fantasy flower made of carrots will decorate any dish!
Use a sharp knife.
Simple, cheap and pretty!
I really hope that my advice will be useful and will be in demand!
Carving is the art of carving fruits and vegetables. decorated with beautiful flowers carved from vegetables using the art of carving. In many restaurants, at solemn banquets, bouquets of vegetables and fruits are in vases.
The art of curly cutting for vegetables is taught at special courses and catering establishments.
Flowers are made from cut vegetables and put on the festive table in a vase, as in the photo or dishes.
Special tools are used for cutting. In this article, you will get acquainted with the art of figured cutting for vegetables.
Carving tool set
Main knife
A regular knife may well be suitable for cutting vegetables. The knife should have a pointed end and a strong blade made of quality metal and not bent.
The handle of the knife should be ergonomic so as not to feel tired during work.
A sickle-shaped knife or, as it is also called, a Thai knife, can also be used as the main knife. It is convenient for them to make rounded cuts and cuts in hard-to-reach places, somewhere in the middle of the flower.
Carb knives
Karbovochny knives are special knives for curly cutting on vegetables and fruits.
They are sold in a set (over 100 items) and separately.
This article will use a triangular carb knife (acute or V - shaped) to make flowers from Beijing cabbage and
creating oblique cuts in the manufacture of some colors in the art of carving.
Knife notch
A notch knife is also called a noisette knife or a ball knife with a diameter of 10 mm, 15 mm, 18 mm. This is a very handy and useful tool.
With it, you can cut a small ball out of any vegetable to make a flower stamen (chamomile, primrose).
Scissors
Scissors are needed to give the petals of the finished flowers the desired shape: pointed, oval, wavy, as well as for cutting fringe along the edge of the petals when making a double flower.
Carving and the process of choosing the right vegetables
How to choose vegetables for carving?
Flowers can be cut from a variety of vegetables: radishes (black, white, daikon and radishes), beets, carrots, rutabaga, Beijing cabbage, turnips, bell peppers, zucchini, cucumber, kohlrabi, eggplant, onions and other vegetables.
Choose vegetables depending on the shape of the flower you want to get. For example, to cut large flowers, you will need large, hard round vegetables - beets, redbka, turnips. For cone-shaped flowers, such as lily, bluebells, it is better to use oblong-shaped vegetables - radish, daikon.
Lush chrysanthemums, asters and daisies can be cut from Beijing cabbage. From the leaves of leek and red bell pepper - amazing flowers and poppies.
When buying, make sure that the vegetables do not have rot and mechanical damage, as well as voids in the pulp. choose heavier ones and estimate the weight on your hand. If inside the “cotton wool” the vegetable weighs much less.
Do not try to get very fresh vegetables "fresh from the garden." Their flesh is very juicy and elastic, and when cutting a flower, small parts can break off.
How to color and save cut flowers?
Yellow flowers can be carved from pumpkins or turnips, green ones from green radish, red ones from beets and bell peppers, orange ones from carrots.
If you want to cut a flower of a different color: burgundy, pink, purple, lemon, blue, purple, use food coloring.
To do this, cut a flower from a white root crop and lower it into a container with a solution of food coloring of the desired concentration or into a vegetable broth. You can dip only the petals into the dye, then you get a beautiful color transition from dark to light.
Remember, flowers from vegetables are in contact with food on the table, so they must be safe for human health, therefore, dyes must be natural.
If your color is too saturated, run the flower under cold running water until you get the desired shade.
In order for the flower to “bloom”: and the petals bend beautifully - place the freshly cut, not yet painted flower for 10 - 15 minutes in a container of cold water, and then gently bend the petals with a knife at your discretion. To do this, carefully run a knife along the outer or back side of each petal, as if pulling it out, and bend the tip in the right direction. Decorate dishes with carved flowers.
To keep flowers until the day of the celebration, place them in a container of cold water and refrigerate. Change the water often, then the flowers will look fresh and elegant even after a few weeks. Decorate snacks as in the photo.
Flower carving on the theme - Orange Blossom
Orange blossom is the white flowers of the orange tree. They (live or artificial) decorate the wedding dress of the bride.
Vegetables for flowers: radish
Execution of work (carving):
1. Take a large rounded radish.
2. Form the first row of petals by making rounded cuts from top to bottom over the entire surface of the radish.
3. Parallel to the petals of the first row, cut another petal from each side. Try to leave a strip of skin at the end of each petal.
4. Finish the flower by removing the pulp from the middle: first cut the ribs, and then “split” the remaining pulp into stamens of different lengths.
5. Dip the flower in cold water for 5 - 10 minutes, then bend the petals of the first row outward, and the second row inward.
You can not stop there and cut out the petals until you use up all the pulp in the middle.
With carved radish flowers, you can decorate dishes with salads and, and if you are a completely passionate person with imagination, you can decorate the festive table itself and create a bouquet of vegetables and put it in a vase on the table. Enough to surprise the guests for the whole evening.
Cutting flowers from vegetables to decorate dishes on the theme - Forget-me-not
Vegetables for flowers: radish (black, white, daikon, radish), carrot
Execution of work (carving):
1. Cut out an even cylinder with a diameter of 2-3 cm from the root crop. At the same distance from each other, make 5 grooves on its side surface and round off their corners.
2. Lay the cylinder on a board and cut off thin flower plates from the base.
3. Dip the flowers in a container of blue or pink food coloring.
4. Cut a strip of carrots into small squares.
5. Using a toothpick, secure the squares in the center of each flower.
6. Dome a piece of any white hard vegetable and fasten the flowers on it as tightly as possible to each other.
Tip: You can cut the plates from a round cylinder, and then give them the desired shape using metal flower-shaped molds designed for cutting figures from chocolate, jelly.
Decorate culinary dishes with Forget-Me-Not flowers or create a bouquet to decorate a festive table.
Do-it-yourself carving on the topic - Buttercup
Vegetables for flowers: pumpkin, turnip
Execution of work (carving):
1. From a half of a medium-sized peeled turnip or a piece of cylindrical tyuva, cut a thin round plate with a diameter of 3-4 cm.
2. Using scissors, make 5 cuts from the edge of the plate to the center, at an equal distance from each other. Round the petals and give them a heart shape by making a bend in the middle.
3. Use a notch knife to cut a round ball out of the turnip. Prick it on a toothpick, dip it in gelatin diluted in cold water, and then in millet.
4. Using a toothpick, firmly fix the stamen ball in the center of the flower. Make another 10 - 12 flowers and assemble the composition.
As a middle, you can use a piece of yellow bell pepper with seeds.
Tip: If you cut a buttercup from daikon or radish, color it yellow with food coloring.
Tip: Before arranging the dish, shorten the toothpicks that hold the center of each flower to the desired length.
As you correctly understood, you can decorate dishes with flowers and create a bouquet.
Figures from vegetables on the topic - Chamomile
Vegetables for flowers: radish (black, white, daikon), carrots for the middle
Execution of work (carving):
1. Peel a large root crop and cut off a thin plate with a diameter of 5-7 cm from it.
2. Use scissors to make 4 cuts on the plate at an equal distance from each other.
3. Now make 3 cuts inside each sector. It turned out 12 petals.
4. With scissors, give the petals a pointed shape by cutting off the corners.
5. Use a notch knife to cut a ball out of the carrot. If desired, cut it with a "mesh".
6. Using a toothpick, secure the ball in the center of the chamomile.
You can decorate dishes with chamomiles and put them fixed on branches in a vase on the festive table.
Decoration of vegetable salads on the topic - Scarlet poppy - carving to help
Vegetables for flowers: red bell pepper, black radish for center
Execution of work (carving):
1. Choose a large pepper without scratches or flaws. Step back from the stem a few centimeters and cut off the top. We won't need it anymore.
2. Clean out the seeds from the pepper. Decorate the edge by making 4 - 5 arcuate slices-petals of the same size.
3. With a knife, carefully peel each petal. bend the outer petals outward and dip the flower for a few minutes in cold water.
4. Cut a large piece of unpeeled black radish into a “mesh”.
5. Use a toothpick to connect the center with the flower.
Tip: If you used a white radish to make the center, dry it, then dip the top in dissolved gelatin, and then in poppy seeds.
You can create a bouquet of scarlet poppies and it will be a real sensation for guests. And then the guests will understand - this is carving.
Good luck to all readers of the blog in the design of dishes and festive tables with curly flowers from vegetables, created with their own hands in the art of carving.
Even the simplest salad can be dressed up in such a way that it becomes the main decoration of the festive table. In this article, we tried to pick up the simplest and most beautiful ideas for decorating salads.
Salad decorations for any occasion
salad decoration: shape, sprinkle with grated cheese. The keys are made from slices of cheese and olives. Genera from tomato and greens.
salad decoration: salted straw; fresh cucumber rings laid in the form of a chain, red fish rolled at the ends of straws, lettuce, olives, canned corn.
Decoration of salad "Bees": olives, olives and fresh cucumber for wings.
Salad decorations "Calla": Processed cheese calla flower base (in sachets), boiled carrot stamens, green onion stems and leaves.
Asters salad dressing: crab sticks are used as flower petals. Leaves, stems are made from fresh cucumber.
Decoration of salad "Basket": the basket is made of green onions, which are intertwined between salted straws.
Decoration of salad "Lukoshko": basket weaving is made from pieces of hard cheese, flowers from egg whites and boiled carrots. Green onions, cut into rings.
Salad decoration "Palms": palm trees are made from olives impaled on wooden skewers and green onions.
Salad decoration "Heart": grated cheese, green onions at the base, pomegranate seeds for edging, cherry tomatoes as berries, fresh cucumber - leaves, green onions - stalks.
Salad decoration "Bouquet": tomato tulips stuffed with salad; green onion stalks.
Salad decoration "Chamomile": egg white and yolk, thinly sliced fresh cucumber.
Salad decoration "Mushroom": mushroom leg - egg white, the bottom of the cap - grated cheese or boiled potatoes, the top - Korean carrots.
Salad decorations: Green pea and cucumber grapes. The following shows ideas for original decorations for salads from simple ingredients (cucumber, egg, olives, radishes). You can make beautiful spirals from green onions: separate the feathers from the onion, cut each feather lengthwise, carefully tear into thin strips along the entire length, soak the onion strips in cold water for 0.5 hours.
Decorate the salad You can also use regular bell pepper.
Decoration of salads "Christmas": dill, pomegranate, corn, green peas.
salad decoration: in this version, the salad is simply spread out in portions on potato chips.
Decoration of salad "Boats": original fresh cucumber boats filled with salad. The sail is attached with a toothpick.
Salad decoration "Lapti": processed cheese (in bags), herbs, canned mushrooms.
Pineapple salad dressing: walnut, green onion. In the second version, chopped canned champignons and green onions are used.
Salad decoration "Mice": mice are made from boiled eggs, cheese and black pepper (peas), the surface of the salad is sprinkled with grated yolk.
Salad decoration "Slice": put the salad on a plate in the shape of a crescent. Sprinkle the top completely with grated cheese. The edge of the "watermelon slice" is grated cucumber. Next is cheese. And then a tomato without a crust. Seeds of "watermelon" from half rings of olives. In the second version, grated egg white and boiled carrots were used as decoration.
Decoration of salad "Fish": Sliced sausage (different types) and cheese are laid out in the shape of a fish. The mouth is cut from a tomato, the eye is a ring (white from an egg), the pupil is a piece of tomato or olive.
Salad decoration "Roses": roses are made from a thin slice of sausage, twisted into a roll, with straightened edges.
Beetroot salad dressing.
Salad decoration "Cob": Canned corn and green onions, cut lengthwise on one side, are used for decoration.
Salad decoration "Cards": green onions, tomatoes and olives.
And thus, in a roll, you can roll up any puff salad, and then cut it. Looks original. In the photo, the roll is wrapped "".
Decoration of salad "Bags": the salad is portioned in pancakes, a pancake bag is tied with green onions.
Boiled egg swan.
Roses from tomatoes.
Ladybugs from tomatoes and olives.
Scallop of tomato and boiled egg.
Chain, fan and openwork rings from fresh cucumber.
To decorate a salad, sometimes a head of onion and a little imagination are enough.
Decoration of New Year's salad "Dog"
Such a Poodle will perfectly decorate any New Year's dish 2018. The symbol of the year. The muzzle is made from a cauliflower inflorescence, the body from an eggplant, paws and tail from a zucchini.
"Boiled Egg Roosters"
Charming decoration of the New Year's table "Cocks from boiled eggs". They can decorate any salad. Or make an independent dish by seating cockerels on greens. The photo clearly shows how easy it is to make such a rooster of their boiled egg. In a small incision from the sharp end of the egg, you need to insert a scallop with a beak, made from boiled carrots. Eyes can be made from poppy seeds by first preparing a hole with a toothpick.
"Egg White Rooster"
Shape the salad into a rooster shape and top with grated egg whites. Feathers on the tail and wings are made from half rings of olives, paws of a rooster and beak are made from French fries. Scallop and tomato beard.
"Chickens in an Egg"
Well, aren't they cuties! Boil the eggs, carefully cut off the sharp end of the egg, to the yolk. The yolk must be removed, mashed with a fork and mixed, for example, with melted cheese. Fill the egg with the filling again, cover with a “white hat”. We make chicken eyes from black pepper, beak and paws from boiled carrots.
Decoration of New Year's salads
Also, the ideas below are perfect for decorating a New Year's salad.
Christmas trees for the New Year's table
Cut the apple in half. Place the apple half cut side down on a plate. Insert a wooden skewer into the center of the apple. And put slices on it. There will be wonderful Christmas trees.
Father Frost
Salad in the form of Santa Claus can be made with unwrapped crab sticks, boiled rice, grated egg white (beard) and pieces of cheese (Santa Claus bag and face).
New Year's bell
Christmas salad decoration: grated boiled carrots on top. Ornament from grains of black caviar (caviar appetizer). From above, a sprig of spruce and a bow.
Salad decoration
Serving food is half the battle. And even if you are preparing a simple and outstanding salad, decorating it correctly, you can depict the most unusual and original dish. The main thing is to stick to the theme of the holiday or event, for example, for the New Year, you can decorate salads in the form of an animal whose year is coming, in the form of a Christmas tree or a snowman. Or, for a birthday, create unique salads by giving them the shape of a festive cap, cake or gift wrapping. For children, you can make cats, fish, and even a typewriter. On March 8, make a salad in the form of a bouquet or just a flower: a tulip, rose or lilac.
To decorate a salad, even the simplest one, let's take, for example, a vegetable salad, you can use either the same vegetables, or take an original and tasty inclusion, in our case it will be cottage cheese, garlic and herbs. The dish may consist of bell peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, but decorations will be invented from cottage cheese mixed with chopped herbs and garlic passed through a press. We form balls and lay out around the perimeter of the plate, here you have a regular snack with a spicy touch.
A salad of pineapple and chicken, cheese and onions can be served straight in the fruit itself. Just take out the pulp, put it on the dish itself, and leave the peel - the boat as a decoration for the salad. Put the salad directly into the pineapple trough, decorate with herbs on top.
Mimosa salad is simple and familiar to most. But here's how original and new it will look if you plant a sprig of white flowers on top. Such decoration of salads is very unusual, since we will make snow-white flowers from a boiled egg, or rather, protein and yolk. Cut the yolk into circles - this will be the middle, and for the flower itself, use the tops of the egg white, making it sharp jagged corners. Put the parsley, along with the branch, and build flowers around it, putting a round yolk on a white base.
Even the usual festive "Olivier" can be beautifully transformed with a fresh apple and cucumber, eggs and Korean carrots. Here, as they say in the famous film: "Such a thing as ingenuity is also important." Therefore, all products should be combined in taste and theme with the main ingredients of the dish. We cut apples into thin half-slices, cucumbers - as into rolls. We make a circle of cucumbers, folding them in half. In the middle we will make a swan out of apples: simply fold the wings from half rings, and the neck from a separate piece of an apple, which can be obtained by cutting the fruit in half and leaving the root on it. Now we will make, as in the previous salad, flowers from eggs, only in the middle we put not the yolk, but several Korean carrots.
From cheese, you can simply and easily make callas, as a decoration for a salad, just absolutely anyone. We just cut the cheese into thin squares, then we fold the pieces like a cup for seeds, as we used to do from paper, put it on a salad, add a yellow pepper center, eggs, and lay out the stalks of green onions. The middle can also be made black - from olives, green - from olives.
You can also make flowers from a plum tomato. Excellent tulips are obtained if the fruit itself is cut from above into four parts by several centimeters, put on a salad, made from parsley or dill stems and leaves. But lilac can be depicted from processed cheese, simply grated on a large grater in the form of a bunch of these flowers, and adding a drop of food coloring.
Decorating dishes is a real art! If you want to give your table a festive look, the best option is to cut decorative elements from vegetables and fruits. This technique, originally from Japan, is called carving - artistic vegetable carving.
In ancient Japan, dishes were served in pottery covered with leaves for beauty. The Japanese realized that fresh green leaves harmoniously combined with food make the dish much more attractive in appearance, and began to experiment with vegetables. Now little Japanese learn carving from the age of 11. I can't believe that these exquisite flowers are made from various vegetables: such fine work. It's really easy and looks amazing!
1. You can make a water lily from an onion.
2. Turning an ordinary bulb into a lotus: for a beautiful shade, you can sprinkle the tips of the flower with beetroot juice. 
3. Incredibly lush Beijing cabbage flower. 
4. Another version of the lotus from the bow. The middle can be made from carrots, bell pepper will also look beautiful. 
5. Lotus from the bow. The yellow core can be made from carrots, yellow bell peppers, or egg yolks. 
6. This is what a flower can be made from an ordinary radish! 
7. Cucumber and red cabbage will make a rose. 
8. This cucumber flower is very easy to make, just cut the cucumber into thin slices. Looks great! 
9. Onions and carrots are ideal vegetables for carving. 
10. You can cut flowers from chili peppers that are surprisingly similar to red anthurium. 
11. A nice bonus - a strawberry flower. Decorate any dessert! 
For a beautiful table decoration, you can use a variety of vegetables - a large radish, smooth-skinned cucumbers, pumpkin; From fruits, apples, oranges and lemons, watermelons and melons are best cut. To make a carrot flower beautiful, choose a vegetable without a pronounced core. The cabbage should hold well on the stalk, a tight head will look better. Bulgarian peppers, due to their rich color, will perfectly complement any vegetable flower.
