Cooking with Lavender: Three Recipes to Try This Summer

When the sun hits hard on the hills around the Luberon and the air turns dry with the smell of herbs, lavender doesn't stay in the cupboard for long. It moves into the kitchen instead. Sorbet, panna cotta, iced coffee — three recipes built around fine lavender, simple enough for a weekday and good enough for a long Sunday lunch, the kind passed down through Provençal farmhouse kitchens for generations.

Lavender sorbet: summer's frosted version of itself

A homemade sorbet infused with lavender — fragrant, light, built for the hottest afternoons and shaded Sunday lunches that stretch a little too long.

Ingredients

• 250 ml whole milk
• 250 ml water
• 200 ml crème fraîche
• 150 g golden caster sugar
• 2 drops food-grade lavender essential oil, or 2 lavender tea bags

Method

Warm the milk, water, cream, and sugar together over low heat. Pull it off just before it simmers. The lavender oil or tea bags go in next, then a lid on the pan and five hours to let it all infuse properly.

Strain it well once that's done. A light whipped cream gets folded in afterward. Churn in an ice cream maker until smooth and properly set. Serve cold, in something simple and rustic — this dessert doesn't need dressing up to make its point.

Lavender and red berry panna cotta

This one came from Clara, the youngest in the family, who first made it for her own birthday. Light, brightly coloured, with just enough lavender to notice — it's stayed on the family table ever since.

Ingredients

• 400 ml cream
• 100 ml milk
• 45 g brown sugar
• 2 g agar-agar
• 2 drops food-grade lavender essential oil
• 1 Golden Delicious apple
• 110 g raspberries
• 1 packet vanilla sugar
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Method

Cream, milk, sugar, and agar-agar go into a pan together over heat, just until it reaches a gentle simmer. Stir the lavender oil through, then pour into small glasses or jars and set them in the fridge to chill.

While that sets, dice the apple and let it stew down gently with the vanilla sugar and plain sugar until soft. Add the raspberries in, crushing them lightly as they go. Once the panna cotta has firmed up properly, spoon the fruit mixture over the top. The result balances sharp red fruit against the floral note sitting underneath it.

Lavender iced coffee

Lavender and rosemary, dropped into iced coffee — it sounds like an unlikely pairing until it's actually in the glass. Good for an afternoon break, or even alongside drinks before dinner, when something a little different is welcome.

Ingredients

• 2 espresso shots
• 500 ml whole milk
• 2 lavender tea bags
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 tablespoon lavender honey (optional)
• Ice

Method

Heat the milk gently — nowhere near boiling — and let the lavender and rosemary steep in it for about ten minutes. Strain, then pour into glasses with the espresso, the honey if it's going in, and a fair amount of ice. Whisk briefly until a light foam forms on top.

A few fresh flowers on top finish it well. Each sip carries a bit more of the lavender than expected, and it's the kind of detail people tend to ask about.

Lavender in the kitchen, beyond these three

These recipes come straight out of the family kitchen behind the Musée de la Lavande, set in Provence not far from Gordes and Avignon. The lavender behind them grows at altitude and gets picked by hand, which shows in how cleanly the flavour comes through once it's in a dish.

The museum also runs tasting sessions and hands-on workshops built around lavender-based artisanal products, for anyone who wants to go further than these three recipes.

Visits to the Musée de la Lavande can be booked directly for those curious to discover more of what lavender can do in the kitchen — beyond anything most people expect from the flower.