If lemongrass has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 220 recipes to try it in.

What are lemongrass?

Lemongrass is a tall, fibrous grass that gives Thai and Vietnamese cooking its bright citrus backbone. It smells like lemon zest with a cool, almost gingery edge, but unlike lemon it carries no sourness, so it perfumes a dish without making it tart.

You buy it as firm, pale stalks the size of a fat scallion, woody at the top and tightly layered at the base. The flavor lives in that lower bulb, which is the only part most recipes use.

How to Use Lemongrass

Start by trimming. Cut off the dry, grassy top third and the very base of the root, then peel away the tough outer one or two layers until you reach the paler, more tender core. That core is what you cook with.

From there you have two paths depending on the dish. For soups and curries that simmer, leave the stalk in a long piece and bruise it.

Lay it on the board and whack it several times with the flat of a knife or a rolling pin until it splits and frays, which cracks the cells open so the oils flood the broth.

Add it whole, then fish it out before serving, since it never softens enough to eat.

That bruise-and-simmer method is exactly what flavors a pot of Tom Kha Gai (Chicken Coconut Soup) or a fragrant Thai Fish Curry.

When the lemongrass stays in the finished dish, you have to make it edible. Slice the tender core into paper-thin rings and then mince it fine, or pound it in a mortar into a paste with garlic and chili.

This is the route for stir-fries and curry pastes, like a Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken or Vietnamese Stir Fried Chicken with Lemon Grass.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Lemongrass runs with the Southeast Asian aromatics: galangal, kaffir lime leaf, chili, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, coconut milk. It loves chicken, shrimp, and white fish, and it sharpens the citrus side of a peanut sauce.

The biggest mistake is biting into a tough sliver. The fibers near the outer layers stay woody no matter how long they cook, so any piece meant to be eaten must be sliced wafer-thin across the grain, then minced.

The second mistake is using the dry top of the stalk. It looks like more lemongrass, but it is mostly fiber with little oil. Stick to the bottom four to six inches.

Substitutes

Fresh is best, but swaps exist. Lemongrass paste from a tube is the closest, and roughly one teaspoon of paste replaces one fresh stalk; add it later in cooking since it is already broken down.

Dried lemongrass works in long-simmered soups: soak it first and use about one tablespoon of the dried per fresh stalk, but it loses the cool top note.

In a real pinch, the zest of one lemon plus a little lime zest gives you the citrus lift, though not the gingery depth, so add a strip of zest and remove it later.

Buying and Storing

Choose stalks that feel firm and heavy, with a tight, pale-yellow base and no shriveling. A fresh stalk smells strongly of lemon when you scratch the bulb; a tired one barely registers and bends instead of snapping.

In the fridge, wrap the stalks loosely and keep them in the crisper, where they hold for two to three weeks.

Trimmed and tightly wrapped, lemongrass also freezes well for several months, and you can slice or pound it straight from frozen, which actually makes it easier to break down. Freezing is the smart move when a recipe needs only one stalk from a bundle of six.

Quick facts

Where to find lemongrass: Lemongrass are usually found in the produce section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

香茅

British (UK) term

Lemongrass

en français

citronnelle

en español

lemongrass

Recipes using lemongrass

There are 220 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 220 recipes

More lemongrass recipes

• Asian-Flavored Asparagus with Fried Lemon
• Asparagus with Lemon Grass & Shallot Vinaigrette
• Chicken in Lemon Grass & Chili (Ga Xao Xa Ot)
• Chicken with Lemon Grass & Chili
• Cucumber Soup with Lemongrass & Spinach
• Curry Paste for Chicken Curry
• Devilled Crab in Cucumber Cups.
• Devilled Crab in Tomato
• Herbal Lemon Cookies
• Indian Curry Paste for Seafood
• Lemongrass Chicken
• Red Pepper Pork & Noodles
• Rice with Lemongrass & Green Onion
• Thai Chicken & Coconut Soup
• Tofu Satay with Tangy Dipping Sauce