Dill Weed

Dill. Most of us think of pickles when we hear the word, and since Americans get through an average of 9 pounds (4 kilos) of pickles a year, and the Russians swear by pickle juice for a hangover, that association is hardly surprising.

Dill weed has far more uses than pickling, though, and it isn’t just for garnish; it adds zest to a salad, works a treat in dressings, dips and sauces, and is an ubiquitous ingredient in Greek cooking, especially in tzatziki. It elevates a simple grilled fillet of salmon to something exquisite, whilst adding zip to steamed vegetables and roast chicken.

The flavour has been compared to fennel, anise and celery. You’ll find dried dill in the herb and spice section of your local grocery store, and bunches of fresh dill in the produce section of most shops and food markets.

When cooking with dill, a little goes a long way. As a seasoning it is quite pungent, so start with small amounts and add more as needed — finely chop the wispy fronds that grow from the stalk. The flowers are edible but considerably stronger than the leaves, whilst dill seeds can be used as a spice to flavour foods like pickles or bread.

Those flowers are worth knowing about. They come through as spiny yellow heads from spring into summer, and they are stronger than the leaves but milder than the seeds. Their crisp flavour lifts the muskier vegetables — potatoes, mushrooms, beetroot and cabbage among them — brings out the natural sweetness in tomato, yoghurt and cucumber, and will improve any jar of pickled vegetables you care to put them in.

This herb is easy to grow and grows in bunches. In the wild it looks almost like a long grass, with thin, wiry leaves. Dill is native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, and is now grown almost everywhere. It is an annual — it grows fast, flowers, sets seed and is done — though it self-seeds happily and will often come back on its own the following year. It does well in a pot provided the pot is deep, because dill puts down a long taproot and hates being moved; sow the seed where you want the plant to stay rather than transplanting seedlings. It thrives in full sunlight and takes about eight weeks to mature.

Both flowers and leaves have a long culinary and medicinal history. The Romans and the Egyptians used it, dill was taken as a Grecian sedative and aphrodisiac, and in the Middle Ages it was hung as a magic ward to keep off wizards.

That reputation is not entirely fanciful. Fresh dill is a good source of several nutrients, including vitamin C, magnesium and vitamin A. Vitamin C is a powerful ally in collagen production, enhancing the skin‘s firmness and resilience.

Fresh vs dried? I’ll always use fresh, as I find the dried varieties sold in shops are sorely lacking in flavour. Go and plant your dill seeds this weekend

**updated August 2026