When you have a large crop of catmint from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve catmint:
- Make a tea. Catmint has a pleasant, mild, unique, minty flavor that is sort of a cross between its close (but more bitter) cousin, catnip, and its more distant cousin, spearmint. It is best prepared as an infusion. Catmint tea is great by itself and in blends with other nervine-carminatives like any of the following:
- Fennel leaves
- Peppermint and other mints
- Rose petals
- Ginger
- Lemon balm
- Lemon verbena
- Lavender
- Chamomile
- Add it to infused water, alone or with bramble berries like raspberries or blackberries.
- Add it to smoothies.
- Add it to soups and broths.
- Add it to oatmeal.
- Use it in an Interesting Hot Cereal.
- Add it to egg dishes like omelets and quiches.
- Add it to sautés and stirfry dishes.
- Use it as Decor in an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Make a Simple Salad with catmint, lovage, and chard or beet greens.
- Add it to other salads.
- Add it to jams and jellies. It complements raspberry and grape jams especially well.
- Make infused vinegar with catmint alone or co-infuse it with lemon balm and shallots.
- Make catmint honey. An herbal honey is a delicious way to preserve the herbal properties of your catmint, extend its shelf life, and get benefits of honey too.
- Make herbal candies with catmint and honey or sugar.
- Make a tincture. The suggested herb:solvent ratio for a catmint tincture is 1:5 in 25% alcohol.
- Dry it for later use in any of the above culinary and herbal preparations. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
- Freeze it whole or chopped.
- Make herbal ice cubes that can be added to infused water, teas, soups, and more. Learn how to make herbal ice cubes in our Freezing Overview article here.
Further Reading
Growing catmint? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Catmint is also featured in these articles: