There’s something deeply satisfying about a soup with earthy, roasted flavors. Whilst it's summer here, the rain came today and it just felt like a soup day - and besides, I really needed to do something with the celeriac in the crisper that I'd picked up at Feed Me Surf Coast, the local charity that redistributes surplus food. I'd also been given a couple of parsnips from a mate's garden and had half a leek from another meal, plus some random sticks of celery.
As for the lovage, I'd been gifted a plant last year. I love lovage (haha), but had only heard of it when I lived in England. It's quite an old fashioned plant with an impressive history, dating back to Roman times when it was prized not only for its flavor but for its medicinal properties. Lovage has a strong, celery-like taste with a hint of anise. Some people say it's a cross between parsley and cardomom. To be honest I don't taste the anise or the cardomom - it's kinda just like celery and maybe bayleaf to me. The herb is also known for its ability to support digestive and reduce bloating, and like a lot of herbs, has antioxidants and vitamins.
Ottoglenghi has some recipes for fish dishes with lovage - apparently it's common for seafood dishes, though I don't get it myself. I guess it's kinda strong tasting like dill.
I really like roasting the veggies first - it brings out the flavour, and there's less steam in the kitchen.
- 1/2 celeriac, peeled and cubed
- 2 parsnips, peeled and cubed
- 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 leek, cleaned and sliced
- 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 2 sticks of celery, chopped
- 2–3 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Two veggie stock cubes or stock to taste
- A small handful of fresh lovage leaves plus extra for garnish
- Optional: Cheese for serving
Roast your veggies with olive oil in the oven, turning and tossing half way through. Add them to the pan with some stock and simmer for five - ten minutes with the lovage so the flavours develop. Blend til creamy - voila.
Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a leaf of lovage (or some finely chopped). It's also nice with a crumble of feta or even blue cheese for the extra earthy taste.
Needless to say I had it for both lunch and dinner.
Have you cooked with lovage?
With Love,
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It's a proper thing. I thought for a second it was a made-up word and thought how beautiful that is. Then I looked it up, it's what in Romanian we call leuștean and yes, I've used it in soups and pots of various breeds often. But it doesn't sound nearly as lovely. This recipe, however, does. It's rainy, grim here and I'm loving the day. Just realized I'd love it even more with hot creamy soup. So I'm going out.
(Or maybe it's just that nice, crisp bit of bread on the side that's playing havoc with my brain)
Will let you know how it goes anyway.
Oh cool! Hope it is as delicious as mine. It's definitely more a European herb. How else might you use it? It DOES have a lovely name. Did you end up making those oat cookies? I just made another batch and we ate them all in two days which is really bad.
It was great! Though gotta say, the bread really sweetened the deal for me. Perfect meal for a rainy day. Hmm other ways to use lovage that I've seen around here would be pesto and stews, but primarily in Ro it's used for soups and borsch.
Oh yes, the oat cookies! I did, I was just thinking the other day that I should make some more - loved them, thank you for that recipe! And hey, it's a healthy recipe so you were doing yourselves a sorta favor :D
haha healthy apart from the sugar and white flour? My waist disagrees.. :P
Ah, I did think lovage pesto could be a thing, perhaps if it was mellowed with some kale as well? I think that'd be amazing in a wintery bean stew? Yum.
I think it's my eastern Euro roots coming out - my grandpa was slovenian and i think his family hailed from further east, though who knows. I would love to do a dna check if my data wasn't at risk of being stolen. There's a big argument for ancestral memory, a cellular memory that remembers lovage in winter soups.
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I have 2 lovage plants here but I've not cooked with them. I knew it was supposed to taste like celery but didn't know about the anise hint. Not a fan of that either.
I loved this recipe... personally, I prepare a lot of creams for dinner so it never hurts to try new ingredients like the ones you share with us and above all in a very simple way to replicate 🙌 .
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us, I really liked it 😍 .
Greetings!
Your recipe looks very tasty and at the same time healthy.