# Have you ever cooked with lemon leaves?



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Has anyone here ever tried to eat/cook with lemon leaves? Not talking about ****** lime leaves here, but plain old regular lemon leaves. I have a Meyer lemon tree and I intend to try some of the leaves in a Vietnamese salad I'm making tonight. I never thought of it before, but I keep hearing that vietnamese slice them and use them as an aromatic herb. 

Today at the Thai store I found some (regular) lime leaves, so apparently they're also eating those. 

I knew about ****** lime leaves, I just never thought one could eat a regular lemon or lime leave. Next I'll have to try orange leaves and grapefruit leaves (I also have those trees in my backyard). 

It's always exciting to realize that something that was in your yard for years could actually be used as a cooking ingredient!


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Just tried a quick taste. It's really good, reminiscent of lemon zest but more subtly flavored. The texture is a bit tough so I'll have to make I finely slice it.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Just grow some lemon balm. Good flavor easy to grow.


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

I've tried normal lemon leaves, as I wanted to make a Thai dish with ****** lime leaves and I thought that our lemon tree was the same. It turned out that the fruits looked the same but the leaves were quite a different shape and taste. Not nearly as pronounced as the ****** ones, more subtle like ff said.

The dish still tasted good!

FF: can you give us the recipe for the salad you are intending to make?


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

I made a kohlrabi and beef salad, it's from the book "My Vietnam" by Luke N'Guyen. It tasted really good. What's amazing in this dish is all the different textures... as in many Vietnamese dishes. 

- julienne a head of kohlrabi and a large carrot. Pour some rice vinegar and baker's sugar, cover and let pickle in the fridge for an hour.

- lightly toast some peanuts and crush coarsely in a mortar. 

- deep fry slices of garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Reserve the garlic oil. 

- thinly slice red asian shallots and wash in water, dry thoroughly and deep fry until golden brown. 

- make a dressing out of fish sauce, lime, sugar, crushed garlic and minced red chili. 

- slice in chiffonade mint, vietnamese mint, perilla leaves and asian basil. (I couldn't find Vietnamese mint or perilla leaves but used the Meyer lemon leaves). 

- heat some garlic oil and saute some slices of beef. 

Mix up beef, kohlrabi & carrots, fried garlic and herbs, place on a plate, pour the dressing over and garnish with the peanuts and fried shallots. I used 3/4 lbs of beef for 3 persons, and served the salad with rice.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

phatch said:


> Just grow some lemon balm. Good flavor easy to grow.


Great idea. I've never tasted it - but it sounds good. Anyone ever tasted Perilla leaves?


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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

I'm not sure I've ever cooked with them but I've used them as garnish on buffet tables and displays. IIR some use them to wrap shimp in for grilling.

Dave


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Yeah I heard it's a great wrapper.


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