Homemade soup spice “maggi” made from lovage

You don’t have to buy this popular spice in stores anymore and worry about any suspicious ingredients that it may contain these days. Lovage, is also known as “green maggi” because it taste similarly to the original maggi liquid spice. So, take the advantage of lovage and prepare your own “maggi” spice.

All you need is a big bundle of lovage and about 15-20 minutes of time. If you have one of those special appliances for slicing, or if you are a really quick in the kitchen, maybe less than 10 minutes.

How to make your own soup spice

Take a large bundle of lovage. Remove any parts that appear unhealthy or dirty, wash and dry well. The most laborious part is slicing into the smallest possible pieces.People in the old days used crushing mortars and pestle with a little salt, but we prefer slicing.

Pour the chopped lovage into a bowl and add salt. The salt should wrap around it fairly well. Now pour olive oil in and stir until the salt dissolves. The amount of oil depends… you do not need to be precise. You can always top up later.

Photo: Pixabay

Now, put the mixture in clean and sterilized glass jars. You may need to stuff it in actually.Once again, you need to crush the leaves and stems as much as possible in order to get the most of the aromatic juice and flavour out. Finally, if necessary, add oil to top of the glasses.

How to use lovage spice

Cap the jar and store in the refrigerator. If you are making multiple batches, it is always better to use several smaller jars and use one at a time. This will prevent excessive oxidation of the oil.

And where should you use this highly aromatic spice? In soups and sauces of course. It also gives an extra punch to salad dressings or bread spreads. We like it in meatballs, meatloaf or even potato pancakes. You may also use it in barbeque marinades. But remember. It is very salty so do not overdo it.

Preview photo: Pixabay