How to use lavender for cooking

Lavender is one of those beautiful plants that I cannot get enough of. I have a large lavender bush in my front garden and while we certainly do not have a mediterranean climate it fairs pretty ok. Every summer it’s a busy place with bees and bumblebees feasting on the lavender plants.

Cooking with lavender

Lavender is mostly known for it’s use in things like essential oils. The oil is something you’re probably familiair with as it is used in things like washing detergents, soap and perfume. The dried flowers are also used a lot in potpourri. But the good news is you can also use lavender in cooking. 

You can’t use every type of lavender for cooking though. The culinary use is mostly with a type called culinary lavender. The lavender buds come from the English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia). It’s not that the other lavenders are dangerous or poisonous but they do make your food taste like soap. The french lavenders are therefore less suitable for cooking. They’re safe to eat in small amounts but just not very pleasant. 

I haven’t used lavender a lot in my cooking but I did make lavender brownies and lavender macarons. I was quite surprised at the flavor and how delicious it was! I had my doubts going into the cooking but – when used in moderate amounts – it adds a fantastic flavor to a lot of baked goods. 

​If you do use lavender in your cooking make sure it is pesticide free and organic.

Use in small amounts

The key thing to keep in mind is that less is more when it comes to lavender for cooking. You want a hint of the lavender taste and not a mouth full. It’s perfect tot use in sweet dishes and dessert recipes. You can use lavender in your ice cream or make delicious lavender drinks which work great in summer. You can even use it in savory dishes like with cheese. If you make your own goat cheese, you can roll it in crushed lavender buds for instance. Looks great and has that perfect hint of summer.

Growing your own lavender for cooking

Now the best part of growing lavender in your garden is that you can harvest your own culinary lavender and use it in your own cooking. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when harvesting the lavender for use in food.

When is the best time to harvest your lavender?

You want to make sure to harvest your lavender when the flowers are pretty and purple and in full bloom but not too far gone. The perfect timing ensures that you get the best tasting lavender. Also best to pick the flowers in the morning just after the dew has gone and before the highest heat of the day.

How to harvest your lavender

Picking the flowers is best done with pruning shears that you would normally use in the garden. Cut the stems about 1-2 inches above the woody base. This helps to get the plant make new shoots. Now make a couple of fresh lavender bundles. Not too many in one bundle as that would prevent it drying properly. Think around 15-20 stems per bundle.

How to dry the lavender

Now for good culinary lavender it is best to dry the flowers in the natural way by are. I like to pick mine and tie a pretty ribbon around the end of the stems. I hang them upside down, preferably in a cool, dark and dry place but also make sure to have a bit of airflow in the room. 1-2 weeks of drying should be enough. You can feel that the flowers get a bit of a crisp touch.

How to store the dried lavender

You can hang a couple of the lavender bunches in your dressing room. I love the subtle scent it gives off but if you want to use the lavender for cooking it is best to remove the dried flower buds from the stems. You can do this by simply rubbing them gently with your fingers. The buds should easily come of. You can store them in an airtight container ( a glass container is best) and keep them in a dark and cool place for up to a year. Keep in mind that exposing them to light will diminish the color and flavor so a dark place away from light and moisture is best.

Now I usually have a lot of lavender at the end of the season so I simply use part of it for making my own lavender oil (check how to make your own lavender oil below) and part for decoration. 

How to add the lavender to your food

Now adding lavender to your food is not a matter of simply throwing in the flower buds. You want to have them either infused in some kind of liquid or crushed before you add it to your recipes. You can infuse things like olive oil, sugar (check how to make lavender sugar below), warm milk or honey. Simply add the dried flowers to the liquid or make a simple syrup to use in other cooking. Infused is the most subtle way to use lavender for cooking. I love making a simple lavender lemonade with just a bit of sugar syrup, lemon juice and lavender. Delicious!

Once you’ve made your own batch of lavender it will last a pretty long time (a little goes a long way!) and you can now make lavender margarita, lavender scones, lavender macarons, lavender anything. I will soon be sharing more delicious lavender recipes as well to get you going. But make sure to check out how to make lavender sugar first. 

Buying lavender

Of course if you do not have your own garden you can buy edible lavender from a lavender farm or maybe you know someone who has a lot of lavender in their garden. Make sure the variety of lavender is suitable for food and you can probably get some fresh lavender flowers from them.

Lavender sugar

Want to do something different? Make lavender sugar. Put some white sugar and dried lavender flowers in a jar that you can seal well (roughly 2,5 to 3 tsp of lavender to one cup of sugar) and leave the pot to stand unopened for about three weeks. After that you will have a wonderful sugar that has the fresh taste of summer and you can add that in a very subtle way to a cup of lavender tea or your whipped cream.

How to make lavender essential oil (not for cooking!)

Want to use some of that lavender for making an essential oil? You can use the oil to give a lovely scent in your home, you can use it as a massage oil, for using in the bath tub and probably a lot of other things as well. Making it is pretty simple.

You need the following:

• 1 cup of dried lavender buds
• 1.5 cups of a good oil. Think almond oil, olive oil or even coconut oil
• 1 glass jar
• something to strain the liquid and a dark glass bottle for storing

Using your hands or a pestle and mortar slightly crush the lavender buds. Place them in the glass jar. Pour the oil in and make sure all the lavender is fully submerged. Close the jar and place in a warm sunny spot to infuse for about 2-4 weeks. Shake the jar a bit once every few days.

Now the lavender oil is ready to be used. Strain it with a cheesecloth or something similar and pour the oil into a dark glass bottle. It should keep about 6-12 months when stored in a cool dark place.