Growing and gardening and dip recipe
Gardening by Dance of Chaos
Mint or pudina is a beloved herb. This versatile herb can be home grown by beginners. Mint requires a relatively spot in my experience, where it is relatively colder than the warm full blast of sun. Hence the ones that I plant outdoors usually start growing flower and wilting by July, which is high summer in western Europe.
Mint is widely used as a medicinal herb to help with cough and cold. it also does wonders for nerves when drank as tea. In India, mint is also a chief ingredient of pudin-hara or pudina ki goli, small medicinal tablets use to cure constipation and help digestion.That aside, lemon scented mints are also strong ingredients for different cocktails, like mint Jolaap the famous mint.
Types of Mint
There are quite a few different varieties of mint. I personally have grown Vietnamese mint and lemon mint, which has a distinct Mediterranean smell. For someone, who is still finding their way in gardening and has relative small space to garden, one or two varities suffice. But feel free to experiment with different kinds of mint like apple mint, strawberry mint. If you like fresh tea, pepper mint is a good choice. I find the lemon scented mint is enough for me in the homegrown herbal tree front.
Growing Mint
Mint is easily grown in water. The softer greener stems usually take root within a fortnight. This freshly cut stem will probably start rooting soon. I would advise to use some water soluble organic manure to add to the water, if you plan to grow the mint hydroponically and do not want to transfer it to soil. But mint, like any other herbs, grow best and fastest in soil. There are specially prepared herbal soils to grow herbs the best. Any soil will do, as long as you water the plants and show them love and care. Some organic manure, maybe some home made manure, some tea leaves, some crushed shell of eggs, that is all they need end of the day.
As a rule, mint like all herbs, will flourish and die in about four to five months. If you want more mint plants, once your batch dies off, remember to take a few cutting and plant it in water and you can easily regrow from there.
fresh mint chutney
I love making fresh dips with the freshly picked mint. They taste amazing, can be used as a dip for versatile dishes, or just to eat with chips and enhance the taste of the vegetables when I use them.
Recipe of Mint Chutney
Mint chutney or dip is one of the easiest dips to make. Depending on how thick you want to make it, you can use yogurt or cream. But for vegan option, you can also use some almond milk to it.
Pick some fresh mint from your garden ( or buy some mint leaves). I prefer to use the green stems in the dip too, why waste anything.
Pick from fresh coriander from your garden( or buy some). I prefer to use the green stem too.
Chop them up a bit.
chop one or two cloves of garlic. Do not use too much or the smell of garlic will overpower the smell of mint.
Put them in a blender /smoothie maker. Add salt to taste, lemon juice to taste. If you are an Indian who likes it a little spicy, you can add some piece of aachar or pickle to it.
Add the yogurt or cream.
Blend it till it becomes creamy. Do not blend it long to make it a smoothie. just a little churning is enough.
your dip is ready. You could make this without the blender too. In that case you need to finely chop the leaves and cloves.
That’s all for today. If you like this post, I can elaborate on how I make chats or chickpea salads , post the recipe and share a few more things you can reuse this mint dip for.
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There are so many types of mint . Thanks for sharing