The Asian herb lemongrass is rapidly becoming more popular among American cooks. Its fresh, citrusy scent and taste can enliven a wide variety of dishes, including spicy curries, zesty soups, savory meat or seafood bakes, and vegetarian stews.
It is often paired with fish sauce, chilies, and curry powder, but it can also be used in desserts and sweet beverages. Because of its tough texture, lemongrass requires some special preparation before using it in recipes.
How to Cook with Lemongrass
Preparing Lemongrass for Cooking
Lemongrass leaves can be large, stiff, and sharp-edged, so remember to harvest and handle lemongrass with care. You may want to use gloves. For instructions on harvest and handling, see our article on Harvesting and Storing Lemongrass.
The part of lemongrass most often used in recipes is the succulent yellowish-white base of the stalk, sometimes called the bulb. This part may be as long as 6-8”. Peel off the woody outer layers and trim off the hard green upper parts of the stalk as well as the woody root end.
Discard the outer layers and the root end. You can save the upper stalks as well as the leaves and use them to infuse into liquid for tea, soup, and stock. Most other recipes use the lower stalk/bulb.
Using Lemongrass in Drinks and Tea
Many sources note that lemongrass leaves can be used to make herbal tea, but they don’t always give detailed instructions. Here are a few recommendations to use lemongrass in beverages.
- Lemongrass stalks can be used to make a beverage somewhere between lemonade and iced tea. This LA Times recipe calls for boiling coarsely chopped lemongrass stalks with sugar and then straining the stalks back out after the mixture has cooled.
- Another way to make lemongrass iced tea is to infuse thinly sliced stalks in boiling water, then strain them out and add honey to taste.
- The University of Florida recommends adding lemongrass leaves to tea or soup, like bay leaves. This method is simple where you add in the whole leaves allow them cook for a time, then remove the leaves before serving.
- One way to make a simple lemongrass tea is to use the upper stalk and leaves (not the roots). Remove the hard outer layer and wash the plant with warm water. Then knot the leaves, add them to boiling water, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes before removing.
Using Lemongrass in Soups
The lower part of the stem is often used in soups. Some recipes suggest chopping, smashing, or bruising it, boiling it to infuse its flavor into the broth, and then straining it out.
In a meat and vegetable broth, the Sedgwick County Extension recommends simmering lemongrass upper stalks and bones for more than six hours. Remove the meat early and add the vegetables late in the cooking process.
This tofu soup recipe from the Toronto Star also uses this method, infusing the flavor of the stalks into water and then removing them before serving.
The lemongrass bulb can also be finely chopped, left in the soup, and eaten. The Toronto Star’s lemongrass chicken soup recipe calls for mincing lemongrass bulbs and adding them to standard chicken soup early in the cooking process.
Using Lemongrass in Salads
Lemongrass bulbs are generally too hard to eat in large pieces, but they can be sliced very thin and eaten raw in salads. This salad recipe involved shrimp, cashews, fish sauce, coconut, lettuce, and a hot pepper dressing.
Another recipe for lemongrass salad features tamarind paste, fish sauce, shallots, ginger, and onions.
Using Lemongrass in Sauces
Lemongrass in curry sauce can be used to flavor a wide variety of meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. The North Carolina State University recommends a recipe from Transplanting Traditions as a way to spice up bulk sausage. Their Eggplant Lemongrass Curry recipe utilizes the tender bulb of lemongrass, which is chopped and then blended into a paste with chilies, garlic, and ginger, before being mixed with eggplant.
Lemongrass also works well in simple sauces for seafood. The Washington Post offers a crispy lemongrass salmon recipe that combines lemongrass with sugar, fish sauce, curry powder, and shallots to drizzle over salmon.
It can also be used in multipurpose dipping sauces or dressings with ingredients like vinegar, lime juice, chilies, and cilantro.
Baking with Crushed Lemongrass
One method to use lemongrass in baking is crushing lemongrass stalks, wrapping them in foil along with meat or vegetables, and baking them. The Toronto Star suggests steaming or grilling seafood on a bed of crushed lemongrass stalks
Washed lemongrass stalks (both bulbs and upper parts) can be crushed in a mortar and pestle, or with a whack from the side of a chef’s knife.
Lemongrass Recipes
Here are a few simple ways to use lemongrass in everyday cooking:
Thai Chicken with Lemongrass Marinade
This Washington Post recipe features grilled or baked chicken marinated in a lemongrass mixture. The marinade calls for blending lemongrass stalks together with fish sauce, garlic, lemon, salt, and pepper.
Beef Banh Mi with Lemongrass
The Toronto Star has a lemongrass/fish sauce/honey/garlic/chili marinade recipe for beef to chill, slice thinly, and eat in sandwiches along with Asian coleslaw.
Shellfish with Lemongrass
Here’s a savory lemongrass recipe from the LA Times that doesn’t require fish sauce, just fish. Cockles and mussels are cooked in oil flavored with thin-sliced lemon grass as well as garlic, chilies, lemon juice, and wine.
Sticky Lemongrass Burgers
This Washington Post recipe calls for lemongrass paste to be mixed into ground meat, along with scallions and cilantro. They also explain how to substitute fresh lemongrass, blended along with the cilantro and scallions, for the paste.
Chickpeas with Lemongrass, Pumpkin, and Cilantro
This vegetarian stew from The Washington Post is said to be even better the next day than it is fresh. Chickpeas and pumpkins are cooked in a paste of blended lemongrass bulbs, garlic, and ginger.
Lemongrass-Coconut Rice Pudding
Lemongrass can perk up both desserts and savory dishes. This rice pudding recipe from the LA Times calls for cooking rice in a mixture of regular milk, coconut milk, lemon grass, ginger, vanilla, and cinnamon.
The lemon grass, along with the other solid spices, is removed once the rice is cooked. They suggest just cutting the lemongrass stalk into four pieces for easy removal. The sweet spicy rice is then cooked in an egg and sugar mixture.
Lemongrass-Ginger Cookies
The Toronto Star offers a recipe for spicy lemongrass-ginger cookies. This calls for lemongrass paste. It might be possible to substitute fresh pureed lemongrass stalk for lemongrass paste, as in the burger recipe above. Or perhaps the lemongrass-infused oil described in [link to article on harvesting and preserving lemongrass) would substitute effectively.
Summary
Lemongrass can add a unique flavor to a wide range of food and drink, from sweet and savory to meat-based and vegetarian dishes. Handle it carefully, slice it thinly or cook it thoroughly, and remember which parts of the plant are suitable for different recipes.
This article provides some starting points. Once you’re accustomed to using the plant, adjust the recipes or try your own to get as much zip and satisfaction as possible from your lemongrass.