How to cook with lemongrass

Lemongrass is often finely chopped or pounded in order to break down the tough stalks. Once minced or pounded, lemongrass can be added to marinades or grilled meats for a touch of sweet citrusy flavor or used to brighten curry pastes and simple sauces. Powdered lemongrass works here too.

Only the tender part of the bottom third–a tightly packed bulb–of the lemon grass is edible. This part can be sliced or pounded after the tough outer leaves or layers are removed. Once the fibrous inner stem is finely, finely sliced, you can add it raw to salads.

Lemongrass is a very nice complement to chicken and seafood. Try it in recipes like roasted lemongrass chicken, which has a sweet lime sauce, or the zesty Thai lemon-lime shrimp. Lemongrass can also be nice with beef, pork, or lamb.

You can use lemongrass in various dishes and teas, as a pesticide and as a preservative. You can eat raw lemon grass. However, whole lemongrass is not easily chewable, so remove the stalk before consuming raw lemongrass.

Lemon Grass

An Herb that grows up to four feet tall and three feet wide and contains citronella, a natural oil that mosquitoes cannot stand. Lemongrass is also often used to cook for flavor. Any plant carrying the citronella oil is sure to ward of the bite of a mosquito.

Using Lemon Grass

The best and most effective way to repel mosquitoes using the plant is to crush the leaves, thus releasing the oil, and rub them directly onto your skin. Even so, this method will only repel mosquitoes for a short time.

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) is an edible grass of Asian origin. These plants are non-toxic and are listed on several gardening sites as dog-friendly.

Lemongrass oil is a great repelling oil for fleas. The scent is very unpleasant for fleas– but for us it smells great! Mix into a spray with water to spray on your pet’s bedding to keep fleas away.

Lemon grass is an easy-going tropical plant that is quite happy in full sun and average garden soil. It is a tender perennial, hardy only in Zones 9-10.

Lemongrass likes it hot, so grow it in an area with full sun and fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0. Space plants 24 inches apart. Kick off the growing season by mixing several inches aged compost or other rich organic matter into your native soil.

Lemon Grass Growing Conditions

Grow in a frost-free place in full sun or light shade. The herb likes moist, well-drained soil that is slightly acidic.

If you have a two-foot tub, you could plant all 6 lavenders around the outside and put the lemon grass in the centre. In a one-foot tub, use half the plants in each. For soil, use tropical plant soil, as is available in garden supply stores. If it looks too mushy when wetted add some sharp builder’s sand to the mix.

Lemongrass loves full sun but can do well if you place it in partial shade if you live in a warmer, more tropical climate. Lemongrass needs very well-draining soil.

Lemongrass grows quickly and spreads to fill a planting bed or pot. Expect a plant to reach a size of 3 to 5 feet tall and up to 2 feet wide in a growing season.

In moderately cooler zones, lemongrass may survive the winter and return in the spring even though the plant’s leaves die back. Lemongrass roots are typically hardy in USDA zones 8b and 9, and in these zones, the plant may return year after year as a perennial.

IDENTIFICATION: Lemongrass is a clumping evergreen with narrow blades ranging blue-green to gold, edges are sharp, tiny flowers on stalk are white, cream, or green. Can grow from two to five feet high. Crushed blade has distinct aroma of lemons.

Insufficient watering/fertilizing

The most obvious reason for a lemongrass plant turning brown would be lack of water and/or nutrients. Water and mist the plants regularly. To keep other plants nearby from getting drowned out by the frequent watering, plant the lemongrass in a bottomless container buried in the soil.

Cutting lemongrass stalks for cooking will keep the plant somewhat in check, but lemongrass grows so quickly that extra pruning is often necessary. The best time for trimming lemongrass is early spring, when the plant is still dormant. Lemongrass is very forgiving and can be cut back quite drastically.