Cooking With Mint: Recipes I want to try!

This post may contain affiliate links, I will be compensated for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
​

         I have mint growing in a pot in my garden.  
      The reason it is growing in a pot is because mint is a very invasive plant and will take over a bed quickly! 
        Mint is also a very useful plant in the garden because many garden pests are repelled by its smell.  I move it around among my squash plants to try to repel squash beetles.  It seems to have worked the last couple of years! 
      Not only that, mint is a beautiful plant with textured green leaves as well as the lovely aroma that non-pests really like. 
      But, lately as I wander about in my garden looking at my lovely plants and thinking about the recipes that I will make with them, I realized that I haven't been cooking with the mint and I decided that I needed to do that.  I wondered if I would like the minty taste in very many foods and felt like its use was probably limited.  Well, after doing a bit of research, I discovered how wrong that assumption was!  Now I can  hardly wait to try using mint in a bunch of new recipes, and I can only hope that I am growing enough of it! 

​Watermelon Slush Punch

This is a recipe that Alicia put on our blog quite awhile ago.  It doesn't call for mint, but in my research I've learned that watermelon, mint and lime go great together.  So, the addition of mint in this recipe would probably be terrific! 

I do have recipes on the blog that use mint extract, but not fresh mint, so I'm turning to other sources for recipes that I want to try! I'll let you know when I try them! If you have already tried them or try them with me or before me, please let me know! ​
​

Tzatziki

I can't wait to try this one!  I've never made my own Tzatziki! I think on veggies, naan, crackers...I only wish I'd grown my own dill this year! 
​

Rice with Feta and Mint with Rice Cooker Chicken

I am going to try this recipe as soon as possible.  I will probably adapt it to the Instant Pot.  I have some Feta that I need to use up, and this just looks so delicious to me! 
​

Cucumber Melon Salad

One thing I've learned in my research is that melons and cucumbers go great with mint.  This time the melon is cantaloupe, which I have growing in my garden right now!  They are big enough or ripe yet, but I can hardly wait to give this refreshing looking salad a try! 

That baby cantaloupe is much bigger now, bigger than the size of my fist!

Creamy Pancetta, Pea and Mint Pasta

My winter garden produced a really good harvest of peas this year and I was able to blanche and freeze some of them!  When I saw this recipe, I knew that I had to give it a try.  I don't have any pancetta on hand, but I do have bacon, so I may make a slightly tweaked version of this recipe.  I'll post it if it is successful! 

Pattypan Squash With Pasta and Mint

I couldn't believe it when I saw this recipe!  I just posted this recipe using my surprise pattypan squash! What a great way to marry these two things from my garden!  I'm excited to give this recipe a try! 

Fresh Mint Ice Cream

I haven't done a cooked custard base for my ice cream yet when I make it in my new ice cream machine.  I always go with the easy quick mix base.  I have been wanting to try a custard base though and using my fresh mint might be the perfect time to try it!  Adding a little chocolate couldn't hurt either!    
I may have to try it both ways, cooked and uncooked to see which one I like best.  Darn, that is a lot of ice cream to eat!  I'm willing to make the sacrifice! 
​

Homemade Mint Extract

Last year, we posted about how we made vanilla and almond extracts.  Well, you can make mint extract as well!  This recipe calls for Vodka, but I wonder if glycerin would also work?  I may have to give that a try! 
​

     As you can see, from savory to sweet, mint is a very versatile ingredient!  I can hardly wait to test out these recipes and let you know how it goes!