Summertime mint dressing

A favorite, all-purpose summer condiment.

|
The Runaway Spoon
From dressing steamed sugar snap peas, or drizzled over grilled asparagus, fruit, fish, or brushed on grilled pork chops, the uses for mint dressing are endless.

If I could create my own personal fragrance, or have some sort of mechanism that made everywhere I go have a certain happy, peaceful scent, the primary element would be fresh garden mint. It smells like summer to me. And sweet tea. And the South. And all good things. 

I suppose the variety is technically spearmint, but I think of it as Southern mint. I have always grown mint – in pots on the deck of my first small home, to the larger vegetable beds of my current house. My mother has always grown mint, and even my grandmother, who was not a gardener, grew a few mint plants. In our hot Southern climate, it grows profusely, and the more you cut it, the more it flourishes.

I can’t really have enough mint, though some people consider it invasive and are stymied by what to do with it all. Here is the answer.

This is my favorite all-purpose summer condiment. It so simple, it is hardly even a recipe at all.  But I promise, the uses are endless. 

I love it tossed with steamed sugar snap peas, or drizzled over grilled asparagus. It is perfect with fruit, from strawberries to melon cubes. Drizzle it over fish, or brush on grilled pork chops. Use it as a dressing for a cold chicken salad, or a sauce for simple chicken breasts. Try it in slaw or over crisp lettuce.  Toss it with potatoes or drizzle over sliced tomatoes. The sugar highlights the sweetness of the mint, but the vinegar really brings out its essence, with a slight edge from the lemon juice.

Summertime Mint Dressing
Makes about 1/3 cup 

1/2 cup firmly packed mint leaves
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Place all the ingredients in the carafe of a blender and puree until smooth.  Pour into a jar, scraping the sides of the blender down to get out all of the mint.

This is best made fresh, but will keep in the fridge in tightly sealed jar for a couple of days.  The recipe easily doubles.

Related post on The Runaway Spoon: Southern Pecan Dressing

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Summertime mint dressing
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2012/0614/Summertime-mint-dressing
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe