Lovage is an old fashioned herb, once very popular, though now few people know it. It has a strong, fresh celery-like flavour, and was used both in cooking and for making cordials and liqueurs which had the reputation of making a man more ardent in the bedroom department!
I had a lovely flush of fresh growth on my lovage plant in the herb garden, and found some potatoes in the veg patch that had escaped being dug up in the autumn. Lovage soup seemed the obvious choice. It is very simple to make:
Fry an onion for a few minutes, and add peeled cubed potatoes (I used the amount in the picture) and sauté for a couple of minutes more. Add a pint of vegetable stock, and half a pint or so of milk (soya is fine), salt and pepper and cook until the potatoes are soft. Add three or four good handfuls of chopped lovage leaves and liquidise. Serve and enjoy. If you have never had lovage before, it’s a taste sensation!
© Anna Franklin 2020
