 | Ever wanted to know what to do with all that lemon balm that keeps popping up all over your garden? Here's a recipe to make use of it.. |
It's spring again and that means lots of new green growth in the garden! We have a lot of lemon balm, which self seeds almost as vigorously as our rocket does.
Ok - so lemon balm smells great but it can be a bit challenging to use - those leaves are distinctly hairy! And there's only so much herbal tea a person can drink. Here's a recipe that helps use up significant amounts of it. As an added bonus, lemon balm is reputed to improve mood and reduce anxiety, but even if it wasn't, it's a nutritious edible spring green and that's enough for us.
Let's get straight to that recipe!
Ok - so lemon balm smells great but it can be a bit challenging to use - those leaves are distinctly hairy! And there's only so much herbal tea a person can drink. Here's a recipe that helps use up significant amounts of it. As an added bonus, lemon balm is reputed to improve mood and reduce anxiety, but even if it wasn't, it's a nutritious edible spring green and that's enough for us.
Let's get straight to that recipe!
Lemon balm and parsley pesto goes really well with feta cheese (and olives, and roasted capsicum and zucchini)
Ingredients
2 cups of loosely packed lemon balm leaves
2 cups of loosely packed parsley leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
Handful of cashew nuts
Olive oil
Salt to taste
2 cups of loosely packed parsley leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
Handful of cashew nuts
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Process
Wash the leaves and take off larger stems (a few smaller stems should be fine for both lemon balm and parsley).
Drain and chop roughly (especially if your blender or food processor needs all the help it can get).
Peel and roughly chop the garlic.
Put the leaves, nuts, garlic, about half of the lemon juice and a lug of olive oil into your blender and start whizzing. You may need to stop it and push the mix down the sides to make sure it all gets well mixed. If it is too dry to mix well, add more olive oil until it mixes better.
Add more lemon juice and salt to taste.
It should taste lemony and zingy with that little hit of garlic. You can add some freshly grated parmesan cheese to your pesto as well if you want to give it a bit more body.
To serve - mix through a pasta (see photos below for inspiration - we found the flavour goes very well with feta cheese in our pasta), or serve a dollop on fish fillets or barbecued lamb. All flavours that go well with a hit of lemon and garlic - yum!
Drain and chop roughly (especially if your blender or food processor needs all the help it can get).
Peel and roughly chop the garlic.
Put the leaves, nuts, garlic, about half of the lemon juice and a lug of olive oil into your blender and start whizzing. You may need to stop it and push the mix down the sides to make sure it all gets well mixed. If it is too dry to mix well, add more olive oil until it mixes better.
Add more lemon juice and salt to taste.
It should taste lemony and zingy with that little hit of garlic. You can add some freshly grated parmesan cheese to your pesto as well if you want to give it a bit more body.
To serve - mix through a pasta (see photos below for inspiration - we found the flavour goes very well with feta cheese in our pasta), or serve a dollop on fish fillets or barbecued lamb. All flavours that go well with a hit of lemon and garlic - yum!
How about with pine nuts, caramelised onion and capsicum?
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