There seems to be no end to how daylilies can be cooked. Essentially any recipe that calls for green vegetables daylilies can be added. Dried daylily flowers seem to be used to thicken soup.

As always it should be stressed that while there is no evidence that Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are poisonous, there seems to be a reaction in some individuals. This mainly manifests itself as gastric distress and may even have some purgative effect. Daylilies should be consumed in moderation until it is clear how one will react.

Edible Flowers: From Garden To Palate 

by Cathy W Barash: 1993

Freezing Daylilies

"Daylilies open in hot water, so if you wish to freeze buds, pick them a day earlier than usual.

Blanch flowers or buds for three minutes in boiling water. Immediately plunge into ice water. Once completely cooled, pat dry and pack into freezer bags.

Daylilies can be kept up to eight months in the freezer, allowing you to enjoy them almost year round."

Sauteed Dayliles

12 daylily flowers

2 chive flowers broken into florets

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all ingredients into a frying pan. Cover and simmer until just tender and all moisture ins cooked away. Do not overcook. Serve hot as a cooked vegetable. For added richness, toss with butter just before serving.

Serves 2 to 4

Fried Golden Needles

12 daylily flowers

1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water

1 cup all-purpose flour

vegetable oil

Dip each flower in the beaten egg. Roll it in flour. Saute the coated flowers in hot oil until crispy.

This recipe works just as well with frozen daylilies as with fresh. A real treat to have in mid winter.

Serves 2 to 4

Oriental Daylily buds

2 cups daylily buds

1 tablespoon peanut oil

1/4 cup almond slivers

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

2 cups cooked brown rice

Steam daylily buds for 10 to 15 minutes, until tender. In a wok or heavy skillet, heat the oil over a high heat until very hot. Add the almond slivers, saute until browned. Quickly remove the almonds from the pan, set aside. Turn heat down to medium. Add grated ginger and let it cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add vinegar, tamari and water. Stir to mix. Toss in daylily buds. Serve over hot rice, topped with sauteed almonds.

Serves 4

 

Piggy's Cooking Journal

Interesting account of visiting a daylily farm in China. A basic recipe is given for soup.

"This is a daylily soup that my mom used to cook often when I was a kid. The softened daylilies are used to tie strips of pork, black fungus, mushrooms, carrots and preserved mustard greens, and the bundles are then cooked in a soup that is flavoured with a large piece of preserved mustard green and white pepper powder."

Daylily Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
Dried daylilies, soak for 5 minutes, or until softened
Lean pork
Dried mushrooms, soak until softened
Black fungus, soak until softened
Enoki mushrooms
Carrots
Preserved mustard greens, for cutting into strips and a second piece (large) to cook in the soup

Method:
1) Cut all ingredients (except daylilies, enoki mushrooms and second piece of preserved mustard green) into thin strips of equal length.
2) Lightly marinate the strips of pork with pepper, salt and cornstarch.
3) Take a strip of pork, dried mushroom, black fungus, carrot, preserved mustard green and 2 to 3 strips of enoki mushrooms, tie the bundle with a piece of daylily. Repeat the step until you are done with all the ingredients.
4) In a pot of boiling water, put in the large piece of preserved mustard green, let it boil for 5-7 minutes.
5) Add in daylily bundles and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add a dash of white pepper powder, and if you think that the soup is not salty enough, you can add some salt too.
6) Turn off heat and serve immediately.

Piggy / Friday, 24 September 2010

Daylily Fritters: an Edible Flowers Recipe for Summertime

How to make Daylily bud fritters with step by step instructions a recipe and a video!

"I find that the buds taste like a cross between asparagus and green peas and they’re lovely sauteed in a little garlic and butter. But dip them in a light batter, deep-fry them, and sprinkle a pinch of salt on top and you’ve got yourself a crispy summer treat like no other."

Aube Giroux | July 22, 2014

Four Happiness Braised Gluten: Sixi kaofu.

A dish called Four Happiness Braised Gluten: I suspect you'll either love it or hate it!

Carolyn Phillips | May 6, 2011

Use of Daylily as Food and in Medicine by Shiu-Ying Hu American Horticultural Society Magazine 1968

Daylily nutrient values are not well documented. Below are a couple of values that were found. One might expect variation in these values depending on species or variety of daylily as well as age of the harvested material.

Early Gold Hemerocallis 5 fans for $17.50

 Most of the Nutritive values of Daylilies seems to be from this publication by the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) Chapter 6 FAO Plant Nutritive Values

 Protein and Vitamin Content of Daylily Buds (from Erhardt: Daylilies 1992)

 Daylily buds

Vitamin C : 43 mg/100g

Vitamin A : 983 IU

Protein % : 3.1

 Green Beans

Vitamin C : 19 mg/100g

Vitamin A : 630 IU

Protein % : 2.2

 It's assumed that this refers to dried flowers of Hemerocallis fulva. 

 Day Lily (per 100g) Hemerocallis fulva

Calories 42

Protein 2g

Fat .4g

Calcium 87mg

Phosphorus 176mg

Iron 1.2mg

Sodium 24mg

Potassium 170mg

Vitamin A 3,000 I.U.

Thiamin .16mg

Riboflavin .21mg

Niacin .8mg

Vitamin C 88mg

This article is a partial quoting of Dr Hu's article in the American Horticulture's Daylily Handbook 1968. Mostly the most pertinent parts of the article have been quoted. The text is transcribed verbatim.

The complete scan of the article Daylilies as Food

Use of Daylily as Food and in Medicine by Shiu-Ying Hu American Horticultural Society Magazine 1968

 “The daylily is one of the most valuable herbaceous perennials introduced from China to American gardens for their attractive foliage, conspicuous and colorful flowers, exquisite and graceful form, superior ability to compete with weeds and to withstand drought, and for their complete cheerfulness in the face of neglect. In the use of dallies, the American people have only adopted and amplified one of the varied merits of the species discovered by the ancient Chinese, e.g. its ornamental merit. The economic and medicinal merits of the species known to the people of eastern Asia, from Korea to Vietnam, is practically unknown to the American public…

Fields of Daylilies grown for flower harvest in Taiwan

 Cultivation and Preparation for Market

Cultivation

Although daylily flowers are used extensively as an article of food and the crown and root are used as medicine in China, daylilies are not as abundant in China as in the United States. The wild species in China are found in isolated clumps among grass and herbs on the slopes of mountainous areas in western, central and northern China where the land sparsely populated. Daylilies do not occur in large patches as one may see them along the highways in eastern United States (Fig. 1). Actually in China, daylilies are rarely found around ordinary houses. They are planted as a minor crop for ready cash and are placed along the edges of fields or vegetable gardens where the land is to steep or too dry for major crops. It is only in temple grounds, or the backyards of poets and artists, or around the castles of government officers, that daylilies are planted as ornamentals.

Preparation of flowers for market

Although the mature flower buds are delectable, the thrifty Chinese flowers wife seldom prepares a daylily dish for her own table. They are a cash crop and must be sold to augment the family income. Because of the highly perishable nature, the daylily flowers are carefully dried ion the farm. Fresh flowers are not seen  in the market. The dried product appears brownish yellow, wrinkled and twisted and is frequently covered with whitish mould or bloom. It is amusing to note here that many city folk who use the dried flower buds have no idea the common daylily is the source of Chin-chen s’ai which they esteem so highly at the table. Among my non-botanical Chinese friends in America, I have not found one who does not respond in delightful surprise when told that the daylily flowers buds are the source of Chin-chen-ts’ai. Perhaps this is the reason for the large importation of dried flowers from Hong Kong to meet the particular demand of the Chinese Americans particularly the restauranteurs.

In preparing daylilies for the market the farmers pick mature flower-bud early in the morning, just at the time when the flowers begin to open. These buds are brought home and steamed immediately. Then they are spread one by one on a mat and dried in the sun. Experienced field botanists all know the principle of killing plant cells of fleshy specimens, flowers or fruits by application of sudden heat or chemical. Such treatment, hastens the drying process and keeps better color in the dried flowers.

Preparation of the roots for medicine.

The ancient Chinese observed the concentration of material and the hibernation of life in the underground portion of the daylilies, and in their battle with hunger and disease they not only learned the use of daylily flowers for food, but they also discovered the value of the crown and root for the conservation of health. To this end the crown and roots are trimmed off the plant in the Autumn or early Spring before the leaves appear. These are dried in the sun and used as medicine.

Marketing

The marketing of dried daylily flower buds in China and in world trade is noteworthy. In rural China collectors may carry two willow or bamboo baskets at the ends of long poles on their shoulders and travel from village to village to collect small object of farm products…

Marketing the crown and root for medicinal purposes

Marketing of the daylily for medicinal uses is limited to inhabitants of cities, for in rural China the people live on the good earth. The underground part of the daylily, like any other medicinal plant is collected as the need arises and is used fresh…

 Food and Medicinal Value

 Medicinal Value

The use of the underground part of daylilies for medicine is not limited to the people of China. The practice has been adopted by all Asians who have assimilated the Chinese culture, from Korea to Vietnam. In my article ‘Medicinal Plants of Chengdu Herbshops’ published in 1945, I noted :

“ The spindle-shaped thickened fibrous root of the plant, about 8 cm long and 1.5 cm. Thick is boiled with port. The preparation is administered to promote the formation of blood cells, to give strength, to relieve a feverish condition and to cure toothache.”

Numerous ancient Chinese herbals, for example Li Shin-chen’s Pens-ts-ao-kang-mu (Chinese Materica Medica) published in 1590, recorded that daylily underground parts are used for the reduction of temperature (anti febrile), the easing of pain (anodyne), and a diuretic. It is prescribed for dysuria (urinary infection) ,lithiasis, dropsy, gonorrhea, jaundice, piles and tumor of the breast…

Food Value

 The dried daylily has been a delight to the Chinese gourmet. Modern science has proved  this gustatory and nutritional choice completely sound. Chemical analysis of the dried flower buds shows that 11.42 percent of dried weight is protein, 3.3% minerals, 2.27 percent fats, and 8.48 % crude fibers. The content Vitamins A and B is also high. Evidently in daylilies one finds a high protein, non-fattening food rich in both minerals and vitamins. It is very likely that fresh material contains a higher vitamin value, but it seems that the dried form has better flavor…"

 footnote: Dr George Darrow was good friends with Dr Hu and she named a daylily species she discovered after him H. darrowiana.