The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 5 letter word LEMON GRASS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
L
E
M
O
N
G
R
A
S
S
More clues leading to the result LEMON GRASS
- Oil producer backing woman addicted to marijuana?
- Flavouring ingredient, mixture of melon and peach
- Cooking ingredient from dud drug?
- Spreading of large moss smothers last of valerian, fragrant plant
- Aromatic plant no good in borders of large swamp
- What shoppers do after failure to find cooking ingredient
- Oil producer has girl ferrying river sprite around
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "cooking ingredient" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case cooking ingredient = lemon grass.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.