LAvendar..

[Amina516]

Does anyone cook with lavendar? If so...how so? I came across someone mentioning this tonight and I was confuzzled...

[chrislb]

I have heard that adding it to dessert type pastries gives them an interesting floral aroma and taste.

[KiaKat]

It's absolutely possible to cook with lavender. You just have to make sure you're working with food-quality rather than perfume-quality. Check with your local herbalist or boutique independent tea shop.

[flybye023]

One of our local grocery stores sells a chocolate bar with lavender. It tastes pretty good. I also have a cake recipe that uses it. Basically it's a cornbread/peaches upside-down-cake and the lavender is baked in the cornbread part.

It's absolutely possible to cook with lavender. You just have to make sure you're working with food-quality rather than perfume-quality. Check with your local herbalist or boutique independent tea shop.

What kind is food quality? We just used the Spanish lavender from our garden.

[MaggieTheCat]

I sometimes use herb blends in my cooking, and one of the blends I have has some lavender in it. It's good...we don't really notice it much since it's mixed in with a bunch of other stuff like thyme and oregano and rosemary, and the lavender doesn't seem to overpower anything.

[Bella_Vixen]

If you are using it for food, you should make sure it's pesticide free.

[TheMike]

food grade usually means pesticide free.. and means its not mixed with isopropal alcohol or oils used in perfumes... a lot of "essential oils" and perfumes can kinda do nasty things to our insides if eaten

[AccountingDrone]

I sometimes use herb blends in my cooking, and one of the blends I have has some lavender in it. It's good...we don't really notice it much since it's mixed in with a bunch of other stuff like thyme and oregano and rosemary, and the lavender doesn't seem to overpower anything.

Herbs de Province. The area of Province in France is well known for its lavender, as well as thyme, rosemary and marjoram so it is in that particular herb blend. I happen to like it =) It is fantastic on lamb. There is also a lavender blossom honey.

[MoonCat]

There's a place here in town that sells raspberry-lavender ice cream. I tried some over the summer. Absolutely delicious!!

I've had lavender-flavored lemonade, too. You could use a tea ball to add some loose lavender flowers to tea, or to lemonade or other juice drinks.

I used to buy a magazine called Herb Companion. If you can find it, it's a great source for recipes, not only for food, but to make your own cosmetics, cleaning products, and more.

[Treasure]

Raspberry-lavendar chicken w/ rosemary, garlic and red wine vinegar (and i think booze, but i don't remember its been a few years)

caution if you use raspberry syrup (like the stuff for coffee) your chicken will be PINK

did this for a dinner party i hosted, different kabob's on the grill, but YUM!

chicken was cut up, raspberry syrup and red wine vinegar were poured over, lavendar flowers and fresh rosemary sprinkled over, diced garlic added.... covered with foil and put in the fridge overnight... like I said the chicken was PINK so difficult to tell when it was done, but it was yummy when we ate.