14 Lemongrass-y Asian Recipes

Summer is lemongrass season. It’s a hot weather plant so you may be seeing extra gorgeous stalks at farmers’ markets, Asian markets, regular supermarkets and maybe even your garden! (Mine got so bushy that I had to cut it back.) To help celebrate the bounty, I put together a primer called Lemongrass 101 with tips for buying, prepping, storing and growing the aromatic tropical grass.

Along with recipes in my cookbooks and elsewhere, here are fourteen recipes from Viet World Kitchen to further your lemongrass-y adventures.

Lemongrass infusions

I often save all the parts of the lemongrass stalk that I can’t chew or chop for infusing liquids with sweet, citrusy flavor. You can use all kinds of parts, including the leafy sharp-edge blades, which have plenty of flavor but are not suitable for cooking. It doesn’t matter much because you strain the liquid or don’t eat the lemongrass in the end. Three recipes on the site include:

• Dad’s lemongrass tea
• State Bird’s garum (spiced fish sauce)
• Green tomato and lemongrass pickle

Lemongrass in banh mi

Viet sandwiches aren’t all about pate and cold cuts! You can feature a ton of different things inside the walls of the bread. Two lemongrass-centric banh mi fillings for your consideration:

• Lemongrass tofu banh mi
• Banh mi with lemongrass pork sausage

Grilled lemongrass pleasures

When lemongrass is added to marinades, its aroma dissipates a little, falling into the background behind other ingredients. That doesn’t mean that it is unimportant. The lemongrass is melding more with other ingredients to create synergistic flavors. For your summer grilling, here are two favorites:

• Restaurant-style Vietnamese grilled lemongrass pork
• Grilled goat chops with galangal and lemongrass

Lemongrass stir-fry and salad

You can eat lemongrass raw in Asian salads like nasi ulam, one of my go-to recipes every summer because it uses a lot of herbs growing in the garden. Or, stir-fry with lemongrass. The vegan dish starring mushrooms gets a boost from lemongrass.

• Summer herbs and lemongrass rice salad (nasi ulam)
• Lemongrass, chile, mushroom stir-fry

Lemongrass-y curries

Traditionally, there was a lot of chopping and pounding involved to prep for curry pastes and the like but modern cooks can reach for a food processor to zip along with the prep work! The curries are simmered dishes that are great for make ahead and reheating. They’ll get better with a little aging; the curry paste is a fabulous recipe from Andy Ricker's Pok Pok.

• Viet goat curry with coriander and lemongrass
• Indonesian chicken curry
• Thai yellow curry paste
• Thai yellow curry with beef and potato

Dessert

Along with the lemongrass ice cream recipe in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, I’ve added this granita to my lemongrass dessert repertoire. It’s easy and lovely. The recipe comes from the Masumoto family, legendary peach farmers in California’s Central Valley.

• Peach lemongrass granita

There you have it! If you’re unsure about using lemongrass, be sure to check the Lemongrass 101 article for tips. Also, if you want to share your favorite your favorite lemongrass recipes, add a comment below!