My lemon balm is really doing well this year. I make hot drinks with it but I don’t really utilise it enough. It has a number of medicinal uses and so I am keen to make the most of the herb whilst it is growing. This week I have started adding it to stir fry, and I thought that I would try it as a pesto with pasta. This is the pesto recipe.
Ingredients
15g of lemon balm leaves
75g of pine nuts, or other nuts, chopped. (I used some almonds as I had some left from Christmas 2022 in the freezer).
1 heaped tsp of chopped chives
20g Parmesan or similar cheese
4 tbsp of virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Put all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until smooth or the texture that you like.
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Put into an air tight container and store in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.
It had a fresh taste and was nice in the pasta. I also added cherry tomatoes chopped in half with the spaghetti. I wouldn’t say it was my favourite pesto, but I was able to use up ingredients that I had, and it was a new way to utilise my lemon balm and therefore get the benefits from it.
Lemon balm has been used by our ancestors for hundreds of years to ease pain, improve sleep, help with stress and anxiety and ease indigestion. It is an anti-inflammatory, and is also supposed to help with menstrual cramps and PMS, and tiredness and fatigue.
It is best not to eat lemon balm if you are taking sedatives or medications for the thyroid.
Lemon balm also reduces heart rate so best not use if you take heart meds either 😁
Thanks for the heads up. I will edit the post to reflect that if I haven’t put that already.
Not a fan of Pesto but do like lemon balm is fizzy water .
Thank you for the idea though … anything that helps lift moods naturally is a winner
Yes it tastes like sherbet lemons to me! Thanks for sharing
Oh I’m gutted! I have loads of self seeded lemon balm in the garden and wanted to make this pesto, but I have just read that people on thyroid meds shouldn’t use it. 😟
Aww that is a shame. Sorry. You could make some as a gift