Season your dishes naturally with homemade maggi from fresh lovage

Maggi is a popular seasoning worldwide. In our native cuisine, we use it for soups, sauces, meats, and even salad dressings. You can easily buy it in the store, but it's worth making it yourself if you have lovage. It takes a bit of work but ensures no preservatives in the ingredients.

Homemade maggi means fewer preservatives in your food. It contains no artificial ingredients or excessive salt. It’s just healthier and more natural.

Now is the best time to harvest lovage and make homemade Maggi seasoning. In early summer, this herb is the most aromatic. If your garden has been bountiful with lovage, cut lovely, long sprigs and remove the hard parts. You only need a few more ingredients to prepare Maggi. We have two recipes for this seasoning. One is very simple and requires a bit more work but has an unforgettable aroma. Both seasonings will last for the entire winter. The first has the consistency of a thick paste, and the other a liquid. They provide the taste and aroma of fresh lovage leaves.

Ingredients:

    
• A large bunch of lovage leaves
• Non-iodized rock salt to taste
• Oil, such as canola oil

Preparation method:

1. Finely chop the lovage leaves, then blend them in a blender, adding salt. There should be enough salt to give the maggi a distinct taste.
2. Next, add a bit of oil and blend again. The consistency should be pretty thick.
3. Transfer the prepared mixture to a jar, pressing it down to avoid air bubbles.
4. Pour oil over the surface of the mixture. The fat should cover the entire surface of the pressed maggi.
5. Store this maggi in a dark, cool place, such as the fridge or cellar. Each time you use it, add more oil to the jar.

Ingredients:

            
• 1 to 1.3 pounds of garden lovage
• About 5 ounces of parsley
• 2 medium dried porcini or bolete mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons non-iodized rock salt
• 8 tablespoons white sugar
• 6 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1.6 quarts of water

Preparation method:

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the lovage and parsley. Discard wilted or damaged leaves. Cut the greens with stems into approximately 1 to 1.2-inch pieces.
2. Place chopped lovage and parsley into a large pot, pour in 2.1 quarts of water, and add 2 dried mushrooms and 2 tablespoons of non-iodized rock salt. Set on low heat and simmer the broth for about 40 minutes.
3. About 10 minutes before finishing the broth, prepare the caramel.
4. Heat the sugar in a pan with a thick bottom over low heat until it melts. Stir with a heat-resistant silicone spatula or wooden spoon until the liquid thickens and becomes amber-colored, which takes a few minutes.
5. Add about half a cup of hot lovage broth to the hot caramel and stir until combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the pot with the simmering lovage, parsley, and mushroom broth. Add 6 tablespoons of soy sauce, stir, and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes.
7. After finishing cooking, strain the broth through a fine sieve, pour the homemade lovage maggi into small bottles, seal them, and let them cool.
8. Homemade lovage maggi can be pasteurized. Pour the hot maggi into clean, sterilized bottles or jars, immediately seal them, and place them in a pot with hot water so the water reaches 3/4 of their height. Sterilize bottles or jars of about 150-200 ml capacity for about 8-10 minutes after the water simmer slightly.