If you’ve never tasted the herb lovage, it’s time to remedy that situation. But you won’t find it on the spice shelf at the supermarket; you’ll have to grow it yourself. Or, find a friend who does. Fortunately, lovage is a big, easy-care perennial herb that will produce armfuls of leaves and seeds for your table with almost no work from you.
Better known in Europe for its culinary value than here, lovage has been in continual cultivation since Roman times and was part of every medieval kitchen garden. It’s popular in broths, soups, salads, pickles, seafood dishes and more. In Ukraine it was once considered an aphrodisiac and even used as a hair rinse! Time to try it for yourself, especially if you like to cook.
Lovage’s one drawback in a suburban garden is its size; it does get big. A fast grower reaching five feet or more, it quickly develops thick hollow stems, masses of celery-like leaves and spiky yellow umbels held high above the foliage. But if you have the room, it’s well worth growing. It adds impressive bulk to the home vegetable garden, too, along with other edible perennials like rhubarb and asparagus.
Lovage in the Garden
The umbellifer flowerhead is a clue that lovage (Levisticum officinale) shares characteristics with the same family as celery, parsley, dill, carrots, and fennel. All parts of the plant are edible including the root, which was once used as a cooked vegetable in ancient times, but not so much anymore.
Parasitic wasps and other beneficial pollinators are attracted to the yellow-green spiky umbels in late spring. Swallowtail butterfly larvae will feed on lovage just as they do parsley and dill, but they don’t prefer it the way they do the other two. Still, I always find at least one swallowtail caterpillar munching my lovage.
For all its commanding presence, lovage is not very showy. A mature plant resembles celery on steroids. It gets rangy and ragged in short order, so don’t put it in a prominent spot. Of course you can always cut it back, but if you want to harvest the seeds, you’ll need to let it stand until they ripen.
Around late June, I cut the whole plant back (after first inspecting it for caterpillars or chrysalises). I leave about a foot of foliage around the base and maybe fertilize it a little. This stimulates fresh new leaves to grow in time for a second harvest in the fall.
Of course, if swallowtail larvae are present, I wait for them to finish 😊.
Using Lovage in the Kitchen
Lovage leaves taste similar to both celery and parsley only stronger, with an spicy undertone of cardamom. It’s excellent in vegetable soups, in potato and egg dishes, sauces, with seafood, or in creamy salad dressings. I like to use it in fish poaching stock. In Europe and Asia, the seeds are used in pickles just like dill seed.
I find the best quality flavor comes from foliage gathered before or during flowering, which is to say, early in the season. The essential oils lose flavor when dried, but freezing it works great. Just cut, rinse and bag small tender handfuls; no need to blanch. When you need it, just take it out and mince, still frozen. So easy!
For fresh use, a little goes a long way; a few leaves are all you need. If you’ve never tasted it before, I suggest you use it sparingly until you’re sure you like it. Try it first in a soup or stew where the flavor is diluted. Start with a teaspoon of minced leaves to two quarts of stock or liquid, adding it along with all your usual seasoning ingredients. Let the soup simmer 15 minutes or more to allow time for the flavor to develop before tasting. Add more if desired but use a light hand. Like dill, it’s easy to overpower a dish with too much.
Dishes to Try
Vegetable soup or potato-leek soup are both good options for lovage. Devilled eggs or an omelette would work too. Or try sauteed fish fillets simmered with fresh tomatoes, a pinch of lovage, fennel and onions.
Some people use tender lovage stems like you would chard or celery; I haven’t tried that, because I find the leaves to be more than enough flavor for my taste. Feel free to experiment.
If you bake, I bet the seeds would be wonderful on breads and “everything” bagels. The Europeans use lovage seeds in confectionary quite a bit. With its cardamom undertones, I can see where it would lend itself to baked goods as well as curries.
Siting and Care
Because of its size, lovage is best placed with other big plants like rhubarb, in the back of a border, among tall meadow companions or along a fence. Allow enough room (about 3 feet square per plant) as lovage doesn’t like to be moved once established. One plant will easily supply a family all year and then some.
Lovage is happy in ordinary garden soil in full or part sun. Treat it as you would any other perennial vegetable. It’s not picky about care but expect it to look tattered and ratty-looking as the season progresses. Cut it down completely in fall.
Aside from cutting back there’s no other care needed. If it declines, simply replace it. Lovage can be direct sown from seed right in the garden, started indoors in a pot, or purchased as a rooted seedling ready for transplant (if you’re lucky enough to find it).
So go ahead — try lovage. Look for it at well-stocked nurseries that specialize in herbs, seed catalogs, specialty garden catalogs and online. It’s a fun and tasty addition to the kitchen garden.
