Lovage

Have you ever heard of lovage? Don’t worry if you haven’t, as it is also known as the most fabulous herb nobody has ever heard of. It has been long cultivated in Europe, the leaves used as a herb, the roots as a vegetable and the seeds as a spice, especially in southern European cuisine. Its flavour and smell are reminiscent of both celery and parsley, only more intense and spicier than either. The seeds can be used in the same way as fennel seeds.

It has been in European kitchens since Roman times, and it earns its place in almost anything savoury and slow: soups, stews, broths, meat main courses and terrines . The leaves go into salads or into the pot for seasoning, the stalks are excellent in stocks and sauces, and the roots can be eaten as a vegetable or grated raw into a salad.

Lovage is taken far more seriously in eastern Europe than it is here. In Romania the leaves are the seasoning for the local broths — as ordinary on the table there as parsley or dill is to us. In Ukraine it goes into salads and is used as a spice, it is considered an aphrodisiac, and there is an old custom of rinsing the hair with an infusion of the leaves to attract a husband with the scent; you can still buy hair conditioners containing lovage extract. Dried leaves and seeds go into pickled cabbage and cucumbers, both for the flavour and to help preserve them.

Lovage has a medicinal past to match. It was traditionally used as a warming herb for the digestion — indigestion, heartburn, bloating and wind — as an expectorant for coughs and chesty colds, and for period problems. Herbalists used it for the urinary tract as well, which is where its old reputation as a diuretic comes from.

Lovage leaves look like celery leaves, and the leaves are the part you will generally use, minced or shredded into the dish, whilst the stalks work well in stocks and sauces.

One plant is plenty. It is a hardy perennial that dies back in winter and comes up again in spring, reaching a good two metres by midsummer, and it will take sun or partial shade in almost any soil. Pick the young leaves through spring and summer and stop once it flowers, as they turn bitter at that point — or cut the flower stalk out and keep picking. Where I live in France I have never seen it fresh or dried in the shops or markets, so I recommend you grow some lovage in your herb garden and start enjoying the rewards.

**Updated 24.08.26**