Many years ago I brought home some lovage from a neighbor’s garden, and I planted it along the eastern side of our house, under a screened-in porch. For a long time now it has grown there in abundance every spring, and there is always more than enough to share. This year I’ve been feeding some of it to the chickens, who love greens, especially the lemon balm that grows all over our property. Lovage tastes something like celery, but it grows up to five feet high on thick multi-branched stalks. It’s impossible to use it up. It’s quite beautiful, and would make a great addition to any herb or flower garden. It self-seeds every year, and my patch is easily 20 years old, if not more.
Here’s a lovely soup you can make with lovage. If you don’t happen to have access to any, you can make this soup with celery instead.
2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 bunch scallions
1 medium yellow onion
2 quarts vegetable stock
2 large potatoes, chopped coarsely
1 generous bunch of lovage leaves, rinsed and chopped
1/2 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. black pepper
a bowl of yogurt (plain) or sour cream for garnish
Melt the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat, and fry the scallions and onions for 3-5 minutes until wilting. Add stock and potatoes, and cover. Lower the heat to medium, and cook 20 minutes until the potatoes are just barely done. Add the lovage and cook 5 more minutes.
Remove from heat, allow to cool uncovered for 10-15 minutes, and blend the soup with an immersion blender. Stir in the coriander, plus salt and pepper with more to taste. Serve with a bowl of yogurt or sour cream to add as desired. Serves 4-6.
I too, have been making this soup for many years, Took me several years to realize that it made a great potato soup. My recipe is similar. I coarse chop the lovage leaves to make the blending easier at the end. I sometimes lighten up the soup by adding milk or sour cream when cooking is done. I wanted to let everyone know that in the springtime when it has young leaves and the flavors are the strongest, I pick enough lovage leaves to make about 10 pots of soup and put the amount I would use in the recipe into small resealable bags, press all the air out, seal them and put them in the freezer. That way I can make Lovage soup all year long, not just in the spring and summer.
In a sense Lovage Soup is like Vichyssoise, which is a French potato soup. One of the features is that it can be eaten hot or cold. Lovage Soup is delicious, chilled on a hot summer day. I make my own croutons from rye bread or sourdough spiced up with curry and cumin. And fried bacon pieces go perfect with this soup. Everything goes better with bacon, in my opinion.
Thank you for sharing all these terrific ideas! RBS