Safflower Uses: Golden Rice, Soups, Stews and Arroz Caldo

Safflower florets are for color. If you want a dish yellow, they’ll do it. If you also want saffron’s aroma, they can’t. Gernot Katzer puts their value as a spice at “nearly nil” but says their staining power justifies using them.¹ You’ll find the dried orange-red florets in Filipino arroz caldo and Azerbaijani clay-pot soups, and sometimes in jars sold to tourists as “saffron.”

Where safflower goes

Rice and porridge

PROSEA says the florets are commonly mixed into rice, bread and pickles to turn them orange.² Plain rice is an easy place to start, since, going by Katzer’s description of its weak flavor, safflower changes the color far more than the taste.

Arroz caldo. In the Philippines, safflower is kasubha, which Pepper.ph describes as a coloring agent that gives Filipino food a yellow hue, also known as Philippine saffron. Its recipe sums the dish up as basic lugaw (rice porridge) with chicken, ginger and kasubha added. Ally Estrada’s version uses 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of dried kasubha for four servings, along with chicken, ginger, garlic, glutinous and jasmine rice and dried shrimp. The same page warns not to confuse kasubha with Spanish saffron: it comes from a different plant and has a milder flavor and aroma.³

Soups, broths and stews

Katzer says safflower is quite common in Azerbaijani cooking, where it improves the color of broths, soups and stews. His example is piti, a soup made in single-serving clay pots from mutton, mutton tail fat and chickpeas, often with fresh or dried fruit, nuts or chestnuts. Safflower goes in toward the end and tints the broth yellowish.¹

PROSEA describes the yellow pigment as water-soluble.² For any soup, try doing what piti does: add the florets near the end and judge by eye.

Middle Eastern and Georgian cooking

• Middle East. Katzer says the florets see some use as a poor imitation of saffron in Middle Eastern cooking, but rarely as a spice in their own right.¹
• Georgia. Katzer says the yellow flowers in Georgian cooking usually come from marigold, often ground and sold as “Imeretian saffron” for spice mixes. Safflower can stand in, though it has even less flavor.¹ Saveur’s guide to khmeli suneli lists dried marigold among that blend’s ingredients.⁵

In place of saffron

Safflower is sold as the poor relation of saffron, and sometimes passed off as the real thing. Many European languages call it “false saffron” or something like it, and Britannica records its use as an adulterant of saffron.⁶ Katzer adds that many cooks think of safflower as a cheaper grade of saffron, and that it’s often sold as “saffron” to tourists in Hungary and North Africa.¹

They aren’t the same thing. Saffron is the stigmas of a crocus, and Britannica says it has a strong aroma and a bitter taste.⁷ Safflower, by Katzer’s account, tastes very weak and herbaceous and gives food a rather pale color.¹ Food Republic suggests using safflower in equal proportions to replace saffron.⁴ Think of that as a color swap. See safflower vs. saffron and saffron substitutes.

Safflower tea

Steep the florets in hot water and you get a yellow drink. Claims that safflower tea helps heart or bone health couldn’t be traced to any study or regulator. PROSEA records the florets’ place in traditional Chinese medicine, including use to induce labor.² That’s a record of traditional use, not evidence it works, but it’s reason enough to check with a doctor before drinking safflower tea while pregnant.

What isn’t sourced

We couldn’t trace several uses often credited to safflower: Mexican or Latin American rice dishes, Syrian dishes like stuffed zucchini (kousa mahshi) and the omelet ejjeh, Filipino atchara pickles specifically, and Portuguese fish stews. They may well exist. We just found no recipe or reference to cite.

Related

• Safflower and safflower substitutes
• Saffron uses and cooking with saffron
• Other spices used for color: turmeric and annatto seeds