What Is Lavender – 10 Ways To Use Lavender – Infusing Lavender Leaves – Lavender Syrup – Lavender Benefits – FAQ
Lavender leaves are incredibly aromatic and a great ingredient if you want to brew some tea or make some soap at home. In this article we take a deeper look at the many possibilities of using lavender leaves.
These are based on things we have done ourselves with this magical plant. There are many guides out there on how you can grow lavender plants, but being able to also utilize the plant in other ways than simply enjoying the look of can be very rewarding.
What Is Lavender
Lavender is a pretty common plant to grow at home. It has beautiful purple flowers that are highly aromatic. They flower during the summer and stay with the plant quite long into the fall when the temperatures fall.
There are many different varieties out there of lavender, but the most common one would be the English lavender. This is the hardiest variety and can with ease manage low temperatures and harsh climates.
Lavender has for many centuries been used, not only for the sake of the aroma but for medicine as well. It had a calming effect on most people that also acted as a pain numbing medicine too. These days it’s more common to use in teas or in soaps.
10 Ways To Use Lavender Leaves
There are many ways of utilizing lavender and below are some of our favorite ways of making the most of it. Lavender has a lovely scent and aroma that fits well with a lot of things.
Drying Lavender Leaves
Simply drying lavender leaves are a great way of preserving the plant. There are a few different ways of doing this, but our favorite way, which also happens to be the most efficient, is oven drying them.
We strip the sprigs of lavender from the leaves and then lay them flat on a tray and dry them at the lowest temperature in the oven. The lower the temperature the more aroma and smell will be left in the leaves. After you have dried them, then you can use them however you want. Infuse them in warm water to make lavender leaf tea or in a room to give a lovely scent.
Making Lavender Oils
Making oils with lavender is a great way of flavoring and getting a culinary use of lavender. We do this by firstly taking nice sprigs of lavender, be that both the leaves and the flowers of the plant. We then let it lay in oil and cold infuse. This takes a very long time and will require some patience.
The second method would be to blend the sprigs of lavender with the oil and then let it infuse for a week or so. This is the fastest method and also gives the oil a lovely purple color to it. Drizzling some of this oil over a salad is a great way of adding an aromatic touch to it.
Infused Lavender Vinegar
If you don’t want to make oil from lavender then making vinegar might be the second best thing to do. We basically use the same methods as with the oil. Either you let the lavender cold infuse with the vinegar for a few months. This takes time and patience but will leave you with a smooth flavour of the vinegar afterwards.
The second method would be to mix the lavender with the vinegar. You then want to let this infuse for about a week before using. This will leave you with a very powerful vinegar flavored with lavender. Highly aromatic and slightly sweet, perfect over some salad.
Lavender Cake Decoration
Are you perhaps baking a cake at home and need some nice decoration for it? Then you might want to use lavender. The flowers are nice and purple with some sweet and perfumy smell to them.
The best part is that lavender flowers stay nice for a very long time and they are pretty durable too. They can go in and out of the fridge without starting to wilt. But they can also stay on the cake for several hours before beginning to turn bad.
Cooking With Lavender Leaves
This might be one of the more unconventional ways of using lavender leaves, but it’s in fact a great way of getting some nice and perfumy flavor to your food. Using the leaves or the lavender is great for enhancing something you are cooking.
We particularly like to infuse them in cream and then whipping them cream lightly. That way we can get a hint of aroma and perfume in the cream without making it taste like soap.
Lavender Air Fresheners
This is a great way of using lavender and also scenting the area around you. We like to blend about 2 cups of water with some strong lavender oil. This tune goes in a spray bottle and whenever we want to bring the aroma in the room to the next level, then we use our spray bottle.
It doesn’t stay in the air for too long, so you shouldn’t be worried about using too much. But of course it’s a personal preference.
Tea With Lavender Leaves
This is our favorite way of using lavender. Making tea with lavender is also perhaps the most common way of utilizing the plant. Best part is that it’s really simple too.
We take some sprigs of lavender and let them steep in warm water. We normally make about 2 cups of tea at a time and would use 2 large and flowers sprigs of lavender for that. Let it infuse for about 2 minutes before removing the sprigs and enjoying the tea. A bonus tip would be to use a small amount of honey in the tea. This goes very well with the lavender flavor.
Better Sleep
We mentioned that making tea from lavender is a great and efficient way of enjoying the plant. But it also has the added benefit of helping with sleep. Make some tea for yourself and enjoy it before going to bed. This has been proven to help falling asleep more quickly. But it also helps reach deep sleep faster, resulting in better quality sleep.
Lavender Leaves For Soap
Lavender soap is a great way of getting some nice and aromatic aromas on both yourself and the room it’s in. We like to buy ours ready to be honest. These soaps are using something called lavender oil in them to make them so strong. It’s really hard to extract this oil ourselves, so buying them ready is the way to go.
Relaxing Effect
There are many studies currently researching the effect that lavender has with calming and giving a relaxing feeling. The argument seems to be that simply keeping lavender in the same room as yourself will relax you more. This seems to be very true as the scent of lavender really penetrates wherever it is.
How To Infuse Lavender Leaves
Infusing lavender leaves is really simple. Depending on whether you are infusing oil or vinegar then the method is the same. You fill a jar with lavender sprigs and then pour either vinegar or oil over the top to cover it. This can be left in either the fridge or outside to infuse for about 6 months. It takes time but will leave you with a very nice flavor to it.
Lavender Leaves Simple Syrup
Making syrup and infusing it with lavender is such a great way of getting a lot of flavor for the time invested. We start by boiling a simple syrup of 50 % water and 50 % sugar in weight. This then gets a few sprigs of lavender in it and gets left to infuse for a few months or so. Drizzle over some vanilla ice cream and you have yourself a wonderful dessert.
Lavender Leaves Benefits
There are many benefits to lavender leaves. Some of the most prominent ways it impact our bodies is help us relax and calms us too. This happens when either drinking tea made with lavender or just having it laying in the same room.
FAQ
Are The Leaves Of Lavender Edible
The leaves of lavender are very much edible. We have used them for infusing either oils, teas or even vinegar. But a small amount of finely chopped lavender in salad is actually quite nice.
How Do You Use Lavender Leaf Tea
Best way of using lavender leaf tea is straight away. The longer that a tea like this gets left the lesse benefits it will have. Enjoy the tea while it’s still warm and you will get a nice calming feeling.
Do Lavender Leaves Have Medicinal Properties
There hasn’t been any research published yet that confirmed the medicinal properties of lavender and the supposed benefits they carry. But it’s believed that lavender can help with calming the mind and reduce anxiety.
