What Is Lemon basil and How Can I Use It?
Here's everything worth knowing about lemon basil and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 2 recipes to cook tonight.
Key Points
- Lemon basil is sweet basil with a citrus note from the compound citral.
- A staple in Thai and Lao cooking and a natural with fish.
- Add it at the end, since its lemon oils cook off fast.
- For general basil handling, defer to basil.
What is lemon basil?
Lemon basil is sweet basil crossed with a bright citrus note, a variety whose leaves carry the lemony compound citral on top of the usual basil perfume. The result smells like basil that walked past a lemon grove.
It is a staple in Southeast Asian cooking, especially Thai and Lao dishes, where its lemon edge stands up to fish sauce and coconut milk. Western cooks reach for it with fish, chicken, and summer desserts.
For general basil handling, see basil. This page covers what the lemon version does differently.
Cooking With Lemon Basil
Treat lemon basil as a finishing herb. Its citrus oils are delicate and cook off quickly, so tear the leaves in at the end of a curry or soup rather than at the start.
It is a natural with fish and seafood, where the lemon note does the work a wedge of lemon would, without the acidity. It also crosses into sweets, as in Spiced Pound Cake with Lemon Basil-Orange Syrup, and adds lift to rich meat like Herb Crusted Lamb Chops.
The common mistake is treating it like regular basil in a long-simmered tomato sauce. The lemon character fades and you are left with a faint, ordinary basil note that was not worth the trouble.
Substitutes
Regular sweet basil plus a little grated lemon zest is the closest fix: use the basil one for one and add zest to taste. Thai basil brings an anise note instead of lemon, so it changes the dish but works in Southeast Asian recipes.
In a dessert or syrup, plain basil with a squeeze of lemon juice covers most of the gap. Lemon verbena leans harder into citrus and can stand in where the lemon is the point.
Buying & Storage
Lemon basil bruises easily, so look for crisp, unblemished leaves and skip any bunch with blackened edges. A quick rub of a leaf should give you that telltale lemon-basil smell.
Store it like sweet basil: loosely wrapped at room temperature or stems in water on the counter, since cold turns the leaves black. Use it within a few days, because the citrus fades fast even in good storage. See basil for the full keeping routine.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 柠檬罗勒
- British (UK) term
- Lemon basil
- en français
- basilic citron
- en español
- albahaca limón
Recipes using lemon basil
There are 2 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Spiced Pound Cake with Lemon Basil-Orange Syrup
Spiced pound cake soaked with a fragrant orange-basil syrup. The warm syrup is slowly drizzled into the cake so it soaks deep into every slice, creating a moist, citrus-scented loaf with a hint of fresh herb.
Herb Crusted Lamb Chops
Herb crusted lamb chops marinated in toasted cumin, garlic, lemon, orange juice, and two kinds of basil, then grilled over charcoal. A bright, citrus-forward rub that balances rich [lamb](/recipes/lamb) beautifully.
