Help! What To Do With Lemongrass Leaves?

Our lemongrass plant had an unfortunate run-in with a gust of of wind, resulting in a few snapped stems and a whole heck of a lot of leaves. Most recipes only call for the juicy stalk - any suggestions for what we can do with the leaves?

We found a few notes on drying the leaves for use in herbal teas. We'll try looping some of the leaves into rings and hanging them to dry. A lemony cup of tea sounds like a good cure for winter blues!

If it's good enough for tea, we wonder if dried lemon grass might also work in a savory broth. Several sources say that fresh lemon grass can make broths too bitter, but the muted flavor of dried leaves might have less punch.

Another thought is to use the fresh leaves to line bamboo steamers when cooking fish, vegetables, and dumplings. We're hoping the leaves perfume the food as it steams.

We'll also try freezing some leaves (yes, we really have THAT many leaves!) to see if we can use them in this way once thawed.

Any other suggestions?

(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)

Comments (6)

This past weekend on Food Network's Feasting on Waves Alton Brown placed fresh Lemon Grass leaves in a kettle then poured boiling water over top. He let it sit for about 10 minutes then made a glass of what he called "Excellent Lemon Tea."

posted by Wintursoul on September 11th 2008 at 6:45am
view Wintursoul's profile

Hey, where did you get your lemon grass? I would like to have some, but can't seem to find it as a plant.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on September 11th 2008 at 6:48am
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile

So chai is made w/ spices right? My aunt makes a version w/ lemongrass leaves. Make black tea w/ water that was previously steeped with lemongrass. Add milk and sugar to taste. Or leave it black. This would also be delicious w/ green tea.

posted by gayatri on September 11th 2008 at 7:28am
view gayatri's profile

You can grow lemongrass from a stalk pretty easily:

Good Tip: Growing Lemongrass

posted by faith on September 11th 2008 at 9:35am
view faith's profile

lemongrass chicken. take a whole game hen and shove some lemongrass inside. something my parents used to do all the time.

posted by fert on September 13th 2008 at 6:41pm
view fert's profile

I harvest a lot of lemongrass leaves and try to make essence from it. I tried to boil it but fail, all the fragrance gone. finally I use my blender (with blazer) and add some water to mix it, the effect is good. The mixture is dark green but when I filter it with coffee filter paper the liquid become clear brown, both before and after filtering smell wonderful.
I planned to add that into the hand detergent, car air reflesher. I am drying the remaining of the leaves since it is still have lovely fragrance, and will use it in small bag to put with my clothes.

posted by mrsyung on June 17th 2009 at 3:19am
view mrsyung's profile