Add our best recipes with lemongrass to your repertoire for their fragrance and flavour, as much as for the soothing, calming and healing effects of lemongrass. Used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, modern research has shown that lemongrass also has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties that may help fight disease and boost your immunity.
Southeast Asian cuisines feature countless recipes with lemongrass. Fresh lemongrass is an essential ingredient in the herb and spice pastes that form the basis of so many Southeast Asian soups, stews and curries, which are also used as a marinade for grilled meats. It’s also used to flavour seafood and salads, and used as a garnish.
Not only is lemongrass key to aroma and flavour, it has been used in Asia for its soothing and healing properties in traditional medicine for thousands of years. It’s used as a folk remedy to help boost immunity, aid digestion, heal an upset tummy, soothe stomach cramps, work as a diuretic, and more generally to calm and uplift the mood.
Lemongrass is also increasingly being used in modern medicine. Research has found that lemongrass contains antioxidants that fight free radicals that can cause disease; antimicrobial properties that can work against several types of bacteria and help fight tooth decay and treat oral infections; and anti-inflammatory properties that may play a role in helping to prevent strokes, heart disease and cancer. Of course, you should consult first a medical specialist for advice.
Before I tell you about our recipes with lemongrass, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
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Lastly, you could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about our recipes with lemongrass.
Recipes with Lemongrass to Soothe, Calm, Heal, Boost Your Immunity and Lift Your Mood
As our best recipes with lemongrass below indicate, lemongrass is used extensively in Southeast Asian cuisines, in Cambodian cuisine, Thai cuisine, Vietnamese cuisine, Lao cuisine, and the cuisines of Myanmar.
Lemongrass, as you’d expect from its name, looks like a long tall grass and typically grows together in large clumps. Also known as citronella for its citrusy fragrance and fresh lemony flavours, lemongrass is an aromatic ingredient integral to the cuisines of northern Southeast Asia – to those of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar.
If you’ve travelled to Southeast Asia, you would have spotted lemongrass somewhere. It’s absolutely everywhere, growing in the yards of homes, in the gardens of hotels, even by the side of the road, and sold in markets in big bunches of long stalks that are white at the root and gradually cycling through pale shades of lemon, lime and green.
Aside from cooking, in Southeast Asia lemongrass is most commonly offered in the form of hot soothing lemongrass tea or a chilled lemongrass drink. Hotel staff here in Siem Reap offer guests a cold lemongrass refreshment on their return from a day out climbing temples to soothe weary bodies and reduce aches and pains.
Hotel staff will also bring you a hot steaming lemongrass tea to help you sleep if you complain of jet-lag, to calm you if you’re feeling stressed from the challenges of travel, or to boost your immunity if you’re feeling a bit off.
You’ll also be handed lemongrass tea before and after a treatment or massage at a spa, where lemongrass is also used as an essential oil in aromatherapy to perfume the air, promote calm, restore your spirits, and uplift your mood. You might also spot lemongrass in herbal balms, natural soaps, and insect repellents.
While fresh lemongrass is best when it comes to cooking and is readily available here in Southeast Asia, it might not be as accessible where you live. It’s easy to find in Australia, trickier in Europe. Friends in the USA report that frozen lemongrass is sold in specialist Asian grocery stores and supermarkets.
If you can’t find fresh lemongrass, in that case, you can use ground lemongrass, which is pounded from dried lemongrass, and lemongrass powder, which is simply the finest ground lemongrass.
Recipes with Lemongrass to Soothe, Calm, Heal, Boost Your Immunity and Lift Your Mood
Homemade Japanese Furikake Recipe With Southeast Asian Flavours to Spice Up Your Rice
This homemade furikake recipe with Southeast Asian flavours makes the umami-rich Japanese rice seasoning with a tropical Southeast Asian twist.
Traditional furikake ingredients such as white and black sesame seeds and toasted nori are combined with dried Southeast Asian spices and ground herbs, including lemongrass powder.
If you don’t have a pantry filled with Asian essentials, look for these ingredients at your nearest Asian market or supermarket, specialist Asian grocery store or order them online.
Black and white sesame seeds can usually be found at any supermarket, not necessarily an Asian specialist, but lemongrass powder (finer than dried lemongrass) can be tricky to find, depending on where you live.
It’s worth the search. This is completely addictive and brightens so many dishes, from steamed rice to ramen noodles.
Homemade Furikake Recipe With Southeast Asian Flavours to Spice Up Your Rice
Cambodian Spicy Roasted Peanuts Recipe with Chilli, Kaffir Lime Leaves and Lemongrass
This Cambodian spicy roasted peanuts recipe is a perfect snack for any holiday season, a great accomplice to partner with a cold beer or a potent spiced Negroni.
When you go out to a good bar in Cambodia, especially in Siem Reap, you’ll probably be served two or three small dishes of nibbles with your drinks.
Typically, you’ll get crispy purple taro and orange sweet potato chips, maybe crunchy banana chips, and perhaps some mini crispy rice cakes.
If you’re lucky, you’ll also get a bowl of these Cambodian spicy roasted peanuts with chillies, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and garlic. These are aromatic, spicy, salty, and sweet. Cambodia in a nutshell, so to speak.
Cambodian Spicy Roasted Peanuts Recipe with Chilli, Kaffir Lime Leaves and Lemongrass
Khmer Yellow Kroeung Recipe for Cambodia’s Essential Herb and Spice Paste
This Khmer yellow kroeung recipe makes Cambodia’s herb and spice paste called kroeung, an essential ingredient in Cambodian food. It gets its yellow colour from fresh lemongrass and turmeric, which are pounded into a paste in a good-sized granite mortar and pestle with the other fresh ingredients.
The yellow kroeung is the most basic and most versatile of the main herb and spice pastes used in many classic Cambodian dishes, such as samlor machou kroeung sach ko, a sour beef soup with morning glory, and the steamed fish curry called amok trei.
It’s used as a marinade for charcoal-grilled beef skewers and as an ingredient of prahok k’tis, the ubiquitous Khmer dip made with prahok (fermented fish), minced pork, coconut milk, and pea eggplants.
As with any herb and spice paste, when you are starting to pound the fresh ingredients in the mortar and pestle, start with the hardest ingredients and gradually grind in the softer ingredients.
You can make a big batch as it will keep well in a sealed tupperware container in the fridge. You can also freeze it.
Khmer Yellow Kroeung Recipe for Kroeung Samlor Machou, Cambodia’s Essential Spice Paste
Traditional Khmer Raw Fish Salad Recipe for the Cambodian Style Ceviche Called Phlea Trei
This traditional Khmer raw fish salad recipe for phlea trei makes a Cambodian ceviche usually made with a local firm white fish ‘cooked’ in citrus juice.
It’s an ancient Khmer dish that feels contemporary, which is why it can be found on the menus of Cambodia’s finest Cambodian restaurants.
We use salmon for this modern take on an ancient dish, which, while not local, is much-loved by Cambodians.
The dressing we’re using is fairly traditional, aside from a couple of additional ingredients, such as lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves and zest – which while still Cambodian ingredients, are not usually used in a classic Khmer raw fish salad recipe.
Traditional Khmer Raw Fish Salad Recipe for the Cambodian Style Ceviche Called Phlea Trei
Authentic Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Cambodia’s Beloved Khmer Noodles
Our authentic nom banh chok recipe for Cambodia’s beloved ‘Khmer Noodles’ makes nom banh chok samlor proher, a popular breakfast dish of freshly-made rice noodles doused in a yellow-green coconut-based fish gravy.
The spice paste is distinguished by aromatics such as lemongrass and kaffir lime, and is garnished with foraged wild leaves, aromatic herbs and edible flowers so intrinsic to Cambodian cuisine for fragrance and flavour, as much as they create a feast for the eyes.
Nom banh chok refers to both the fresh ever-so-lightly-fermented rice noodles that are still hand-made by artisanal noodle makers all over Cambodia, just as they’ve always been made, as well as the delicious breakfast noodle dish itself.
Nom banh chok is ‘Cambodia in a bowl’ for me and is perhaps my most favourite Cambodian dish, one of my favourite Southeast Asian noodle dishes, and easily one of our favourite recipes with lemongrass.
Authentic Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Cambodia’s Beloved Khmer Noodles
Cambodian Fish Cakes with Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime Recipe for Prohet Trei Kroeung
This Cambodian fish cakes recipe makes prohet trei kroeung in Khmer, deliciously light fish cakes that are fragrant with lemongrass and kaffir lime, and have a little crunch courtesy of that fresh lemongrass.
Easy to make, these fish cakes are terrific as a snack, appetiser, picnic stuffer, or finger food if you’re entertaining.
There are variants of these fish cakes found right across Southeast Asia. Readers are probably more familiar with Thai fish cakes.
These fish cakes are distinguished by their texture and flavour, thanks to the Cambodian herb and spice paste.
Cambodian Fish Cakes With Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime Recipe for Prohet Trei Kroeung
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Lime Butter and Lemongrass Mayonnaise Recipe
This grilled corn with lime butter and lemongrass mayonnaise recipe is my favourite grilled corn on the cob recipe.
Depending on the weather, Terence might grill the corn over a traditional clay brazier as most Cambodians do at home and on the streets. He loves to use these coconut charcoal BBQ briquettes for that job.
Otherwise, he’ll use a stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan or I will char-grill the corn on the cob on our griddle pan on the stove.
We buy our lemongrass powder and other ground herbs from Siem Reap’s Old Market, however, iff you’d like to make your own, you’ll need to finely chop some lemongrass stalks, spread the slices out on an oven tray covered with baking paper and bake on low heat until the lemongrass is dry and brittle (around 60-90 minutes).
Remove the tray and once the dried herbs have cooled down, grind the herbs to a powder in a mortar and pestle, spice mill, coffee grinder, or a blender. Store them in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Lime Butter and Lemongrass Mayonnaise Recipe
Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons
This grilled corn salad recipe with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayonnaise, and sourdough croutons uses up grilled corn on the cob leftovers from your weekend barbecues and those hard sourdough bread ends you didn’t finish.
Although you could certainly grill your corn from scratch for this. It’s a fantastic salad for spring picnics and summer barbecues and can also serve as a meal on its own.
The salad uses the same lemongrass mayo in the recipe above, but I also like to sprinkle lemongrass powder over the salad, along with chilli flakes, fresh coriander leaves, and a squeeze of lime or two.
Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons
Cambodian Lemongrass Chicken Stir-Fry Recipe for Chha Kroeung Sach Moan
Our Cambodian lemongrass chicken stir-fry recipe makes chha kroeung sach moan, an aromatic stir-fried chicken that’s a popular street food dish that’s also cooked in the home.
Eaten with steamed rice, it’s a cinch to make, it can also be made with beef or pork, or you can do a vegetable-driven vegetarian version.
This Cambodian lemongrass chicken is one of my favourite Cambodian recipes and it’s so ridiculously quick and easy to prepare – as long as you’ve first made the Cambodian yellow kroeung, above, and have some in the fridge.
If you don’t, you’ll need to add another 20 minutes of prep time to this recipe, but it’s worth it.
Cambodian Lemongrass Chicken Stir-Fry Recipe for Chha Kroeung Sach Moan
Cambodian Beef Skewers Recipe with Lemongrass for Sach Ko Ang
This Cambodian lemongrass beef skewers recipe kicked off a series we ran last year on the best Cambodian barbecue recipes.
These beef skewers are one of our go-to street food snacks in Siem Reap. We discovered them on one of our first trips to Cambodia when we were living in Bangkok.
I think we smelt the smoky aromas first, then spotted the plumes of smoke, and let our noses lead the way… which is the way it goes with Cambodian barbecue.
Once again, this recipe calls for yellow kroeung, in which the skewers are marinated, and lemongrass is one of the key ingredients of that kroeung.
Cambodian Beef Skewers Recipe with Lemongrass – How To Make Sach Ko Ang
Cambodian Beef and Pork Belly Skewers Recipe for Sach Ko Chror Nouch
This Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers recipe makes Sach Ko Chror Nouch. Different to the beef skewers marinated in kroeung, above, which kicked off this Cambodian barbecue recipes series, these are called stuffed beef skewers because the beef is wrapped around pork belly or pork fat.
Whereas the skewers above are typically served as a street food snack eaten in the late afternoon and early evenings, you’re more likely to come across these Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers at a wedding.
You only need to marinate these beef pork belly skewers in the kroeung for an hour or so, as the lemongrass flavour is more subtle compared to the beef skewers above, which are very herbaceous and require a good few hours.
Cambodian Beef and Pork Belly Skewers Recipe – How to Make Sach Ko Chror Nouch
Roast Chicken Recipe with Aromatic Cambodian Herb Butter and Stuffing
This roast chicken recipe makes a fragrant, flavoursome and moist roast chicken thanks to my Cambodian inspired herb butter and stuffing made with yellow kroeung.
I make the stuffing with the perfumed Khmer herb and spice paste, pounded from fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, galangal, turmeric, garlic, and shallots.
I cook the chicken with baby corn, carrots, potatoes, and purple shallots for a Cambodian-inspired roast.
But first I drizzle a little olive oil onto the base of the pan, evenly space out the sliced carrot rounds, place lemongrass stalks in between them, spread the kaffir lime leaves on top of these, then pop stale sourdough bread slices on top so it looks like this.
The idea is that the bread soaks up all the juices, the carrots prevent the bread from burning, and the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves infuse the chicken with flavour and aromas.
If you’re feeding a family, I also recommend making Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes recipe.
Best Roast Chicken Recipe with Aromatic Cambodian Herb Butter and Stuffing
Singapore Laksa Recipe with a Lemongrass-Laced Coconut Curry Broth
This Singapore laksa recipe makes the rich coconut milk-laced version of the classic Southeast Asian noodle soup and the paste requires about 15 grams of lemongrass, along with fresh turmeric, galangal, garlic, chillies, and shallots.
A great laksa is not made starting from a shop-bought jar of paste. A great laksa starts with curry paste made from scratch in a mortar and pestle.
There are basically two dominant types of laksa, one with coconut milk and one without. The one with coconut milk mixed into a stock and curry paste broth is common in southern Malaysia and Singapore and is often called curry laksa or curry mee.
‘Mee’ means noodles in various Chinese languages. And this is easily another of my favourite recipes with lemongrass.
Singapore Laksa Recipe – How to Make the Spicy Coconut Curry Noodle Soup
Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe for an Authentic Steamed Fish Curry in the Old Style
Our Cambodian fish amok recipe is traditional – an authentic steamed fish curry made to a classic recipe from an older generation of cooks who believe that if it’s not properly steamed, it’s not fish amok or amok trei (steamed fish curry).
‘Amok’ means to steam in banana leaves in Khmer and it is thought that this refined dish is a Royal Khmer specialty dating back to the Khmer Empire.
Our recipe is based on the recipe of a respected family of elderly cooks whose mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers made the dish during a time when Cambodian women thought nothing of spending a full day preparing a family feast.
To make this authentic fish amok from scratch, including pounding your own Khmer kroeung (link above), you will need to allow at least a couple of hours.
Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe for an Authentic Steamed Fish Curry in the Old Style
Classic Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe for an Aromatic Tomato Based Curry
This classic Burmese chicken curry recipe makes a fragrant gently-spiced curry that is perfumed with lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and chilli.
A rich curry with a moreish tomato-based gravy and a layer of aromatic oil that’s quickly soaked up by coconut rice, it should be served with zingy salads and a relish or two, such as this Burmese raw cabbage salad, Shan vermicelli noodle salad and Shan tomato salad recipe.
This classic Burmese chicken curry recipe is a Burmese recipe that I’ve adapted from my favourite Burmese cookbook, Mi Mi Khaing’s Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, dating to 1978. It’s a delightful little booklet that is as much a historical document as it is a practical cookbook.
Classic Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe for an Aromatic Tomato Based Curry
Creamy Cambodian Coconut Pineapple Fish Curry Recipe for Samlor Ktis Koh Kong
Our Cambodian coconut pineapple fish curry recipe makes samlor ktis Koh Kong, a sweet gently spiced curry made with an herbaceous red kroeung.
This Cambodian herb and spice paste is pounded from fresh lemongrass stalks, galangal, kaffir lime zest, turmeric, garlic, shallots, and red chillies, combined with coconut cream, pineapple and baby eggplants.
A samlor is a soup or stew with a spice paste base that tastes very much like a curry and this samlor, which comes from Koh Kong, an island and coastal province on Cambodia’s southwest coast, tastes like a curry from a tropical island.
It’s the kind of dish that you imagine tucking into on a beach holiday, sitting within splashing distance of the sea – with a bowl of fragrant jasmine rice, an icy cold beer to wash it all down with, and your toes in soft white sand.
Creamy Cambodian Coconut Pineapple Fish Curry Recipe for Samlor Ktis Koh Kong
Easy Vietnamese Chicken Curry Recipe for Cà Ri Gà
This easy Vietnamese chicken curry recipe makes cà ri gà, a gently spiced Vietnamese curry that’s made with Vietnamese curry powder, a dry spice blend, rather than the ‘wet’ spice pastes made of pounded fresh herbs, roots and spices of Cambodia and Thailand’s curry pastes.
It’s the use of Vietnamese curry powder, rather than a freshly pounded herb and spice paste, that makes this Vietnamese chicken curry recipe less time-consuming to make than, say, a Cambodian curry or a Thai curry.
But it’s just as delicious and just as comforting. Instead of being used in a paste, lemongrass is added directly to the curry so that it’s wonderful aromas and flavour still permeate the dish.
Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe for a Gentle Comforting Southeast Asian Curry
This Cambodian chicken curry recipe makes one of Southeast Asia’s most comforting chicken curries.
While it has a depth of flavour that comes from dried spices and fresh aromatic ingredients, such as lemongrass, it has a richness thanks to a liberal use of coconut cream and milk, and a gentleness due to the mild red chillies.
This Cambodian chicken curry recipe, along with the recipe within the recipe for a red kroeung, one of the herb and spice pastes that is the basis of so many Cambodian recipes, was originally adapted from Authentic Cambodian Recipes From Mother to Daughter by Sorey Long and Kanika Linden.
Although Terence has tweaked the recipe over the years, and we explain how in the post, we highly recommend the cookbook for newcomers to Cambodian cooking.
Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe for a Gentle Comforting Southeast Asian Curry
Soto Ayam Recipe for Yogyakarta’s Indonesian Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul
This soto ayam recipe makes the beloved Indonesian chicken noodle soup that we became smitten with in Yogyakarta, Java.
‘Soto’ means soup and ‘ayam’ is chicken and this Indonesian chicken noodle soup is the go-to street food breakfast for many locals.
Like all good chicken soups, soto ayam is nourishing comfort food that’s also eaten for the restorative properties.
Found across Indonesia’s archipelago, soto ayam typically includes our favourite Southeast Asian aromatics: lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, coriander, turmeric, and shallots.
Note that these are most of the same ingredients that go into the herb and spice pastes here in Cambodia and in neighbouring Thailand.
Soto Ayam Recipe for Yogyakarta’s Indonesian Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of these recipes with lemongrass as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
