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Wondering what to do with lemon balm from your garden? In addition to soothing teas and tinctures, this fragrant plant is also great to cook with. If you find yourself with an abundance of lemon balm, try some of these delicious lemon balm recipes and creative ways to use lemon balm.
Working with Lemon Balm in the Kitchen and Home Apothecary
I’ve grown and loved lemon balm for over a decade now, and I always look forward to its vibrant green leaves appearing in my perennial herb garden each season.
Our winters in the last couple of years have had a lot less snow, and without the insulating snowcover, gardeners in my area (chilly zone 4) found their tough-as-nails lemon balm didn’t survive.
That was rough for us lemon balm lovers!
Dismayed at the lack of lemon balm in the garden, I planted a few plants that season and piled them high with straw for the winter, and wow! This year was a HUGE year for lemon balm in my little permaculture garden.
Time to step up my lemon balm game!
Till now, nearly every bit of fresh lemon balm I could harvest went into pots of sleep-promoting tea, with a little left to make a small amount of tincture. But this season there was so much, I needed to look into other ways to use lemon balm,
If you’ve got lemon balm in your garden, odds are you need some ideas for using fresh lemon balm leaves. We’ve got you covered with all you need to know about using lemon balm in the kitchen, in medicinal preparations, and for homemade body care and cleaning products.
Read on to find out what to do with lemon balm when you’ve got loads growing in your garden, plus how to use dried lemon balm.
What to Do With Lemon Balm
Whether or not you have a garden, lemon balm is an herb you want to know medicinally. This gentle but effective herb is incredible for soothing stress and promoting sleep, and it’s a must-have for the home herbal apothecary.
If you’re interested in using lemon balm medicinally, the easiest way is in a simple herbal tea. Lemon balm tea is delicious on its own, or you can combine it with other herbs, either hot or cold.
I often use fresh or dried lemon balm along with catnip, passionflower, chamomile, and lavender in a soothing nighttime tea. Learn more about working with herbs for sleep.
You can also make tinctures and syrups, or use lemon balm in homemade bodycare products. You can find recipes for all these forms below.
Learn more about medicinal lemon balm uses and benefits.
While you can use dried lemon balm medicinally, fresh lemon balm has such a wonderful flavor, you’ll also enjoy using it in cooking. A member of the mint family, lemon balm has a bright, citrusy scent and flavor that makes it utterly delicious in drinks, salads, and all sorts of cooked dishes.
Some of the yummy things you can make with lemon balm include:
- Smoothies and banana ice cream
- Fruit salads
- Sun Tea
- Herb-infused water (you can use this mint water recipe and swap in lemon balm)
- Cocktails and spritzers
- Salad dressings & marinades
- Roasted chicken or seafood dishes
- Soups and stews
- Herb butter or goat cheese
- Herb-infused salt or sugar
- Baked goods, like scones, cookies, and quickbreads
- Infused cream to make homemade ice cream or panna cotta
Lemon balm syrup can be used to make sorbet or cocktails with a lemony lift. Lemon balm can also be used to infuse honey or vinegar. Find out how to make herbal vinegars, which make it easy to get the benefits of herbs anytime you cook or make a salad. Infused vinegars also make great homemade gifts!
You can also use an herbal vinegar as a shine-promoting hair rinse or astringent for skin. It may also help with dandruff.
An easy-to-grow perennial, lemon balm is a natural for the medicinal herb garden. It’s so easy to grow, in fact, you may soon find you have more than you can handle at once, in which case I advise dehydrating some for later use. Check out our beginner’s guide to dehydrating food, plus explore numerous other ways you can preserve herbs from your garden.
I highly recommend a collapsible drying screen. I love that it has tons of space for laying out the many different herbs I gather each season but folds up into a small circle that I can tuck away out of season.
I’ve used it to dry huge quantities of foraged Canadian wood nettle, plantain, linden flowers, goldenrod, elderflowers, birch leaves, and so much more.
If you don’t have access to fresh lemon balm, you can buy it dried from Mountain Rose Herbs and Starwest Botanicals. Dried lemon balm works well for tea, tinctures, infused vinegars, and body care products.
Ready to have fun in the kitchen? Check out these creative and delicious lemon balm recipes!
Lovely Lemon Balm Recipes
Need ideas for what to do with lemon balm? You can use this delicious herb as both a medicinal and a culinary ingredient. Check out these creative lemon balm recipes and enjoy this wonderful herb in yummy drinks, treats, and much more!
This delicious lemon balm tea can be made in several ways. Fresh lemon balm produces a brighter tea, but both fresh and dried lemon balm work well for a tasty, relaxing tea.
These lavender and lemon balm herbal popsicles are a delicious and refreshing way to get the benefit of herbs in the heat of the summer!
Make refreshing lemon balm mead with this simple recipe—blend honey, lemon balm, and yeast for a fragrant, herbal mead with a hint of citrus.
Lemon balm and other herbs known for their stress-relieving tendencies are the perfect ingredients for this hand-blended chamomile tea recipe.
This calming lemon balm coconut Thai iced tea with an herbal twist is perfect for relaxation and hydration.
Fruity and full of bright lemon balm, raspberry lemon balm shrub is a delicious cooler for hot summer days.
Honey-sweetened lemon balm lemonade will cool you down and help you unwind.
Homemade lemon balm syrup is a delicious way to use lemon balm. It can be added to sparkling water or cocktails or used to make sorbet.
These easy lemon balm drop biscuits make the most of lemon balm's flavor and abundance.
Try this simple sourdough lemon balm sheet cake recipe—perfect for adding a fresh, citrusy twist for your next summer get together.
This easy lemon balm tincture recipe can be made with either fresh or dried lemon balm and lets you get the benefits of lemon balm whenever you need them.
Make your own calming lemon balm sugar scrub with just a few ingredients to exfoliating and nourish skin.
Lemon balm soap give you that lovely lemony scent every time you lather up.
Lemon balm is a powerful antiviral, proven to banish cold sores. Use this super healing cold sore lip balm recipe to help fight & prevent cold sores.
Other Things to Do with Lemon balm
Make a quick poultice for bites and stings. Like plantain, lemon balm can help relieve stings from wasps and bees. More on using lemon balm for stings from Herbal Academy here.
Use as a quick insect repellent. If you don’t have a DIY bug repellent at hand, you can grab a few leaves of lemon balm and rub them on your skin.
Use lemon balm to calm inflammation in the skin. Featured in the Queen of Hungary’s Facial Toner, lemon balm can soothe irritated skin. I’m going to try steeping some in witch hazel to make an extra-soothing astringent.
Polish furniture with the leaves. The oil from lemon balm can make wood shine up nicely.
Use in bath soaks. Add fresh leaves to your bath, or put dried lemon balm in a cheesecloth bag and hang from the faucet. You can also add dried lemon balm to DIY bath salts.
Add to potpourri or simmer pots. Simmer fresh or dried lemon balm leaves to add their lemony scent to your home, or use dried lemon balm in DIY potpourri mixes.
Want to expand your herbal knowledge? Check out some of the wonderful herbalism books below. Or explore more of the best herbal medicine books for your home library.
What do you like to do with lemon balm? Please share your favorite ways to use this delightful herb in the comments!
Save these ideas for what to do with lemon balm for later!
Susannah is a health and environmental writer focusing on gardening, foraging, medicinal plants, and sustainability. Her work has appeared in Mother Earth Living, Ensia, Northern Gardener, Sierra, and on numerous websites. Her first book, Everything Elderberry, released in September 2020 and was a #1 new release in holistic medicine, naturopathy, herb gardening, and other categories. Find out more and grab your copy here.
Hi, I'm Susannah, a garden geek, energy nerd, and fan of healthy food and natural remedies. Need some simple, practical solutions for living healthier and greener? You've come to the right place! More about me and my green projects
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