Loading ...Mediterranean Cooking from the Garden with Linda Dalal Sawaya: How to use Spearmint (Na'na')—a ubiquitous, aromatic, medicinal and refreshing herb!
spearmint © 2015 Linda Dalal Sawaya
“As for the garden of mint, the very smell of it alone recovers and refreshes our spirits, as the taste stirs up our appetite for meat.”—Pliny the Elder
Whether you are vegan or carnivorous, aromatic spearmint—which thrives in wet soil like where I live in the Pacific Northwest—adds fresh, nourishing flavor and brightness
to innumerable foods, while filling your kitchen with its fragrance by its mere presence. Beyond being a throw-away garnish, a color accent, or a minor player, spearmint can be a star in the kitchen.
Native to the Mediterranean, mint leaves have long been utilized in medicinal and culinary ways. In Spanish, spearmint is called yerba buena, meaning the good herb, as it is acknowledged for its overall usefulness. On a visit to Guanajuato, Mexico years back, I ordered a vegetarian burger in a little cafe, whose flavor was infused with dried spearmint—a lovely counterpoint to the fresh minced jalapeño peppers within—that proved to be great inspiration for my homemade vegan burgers.
In culinary speak, when mint is mentioned, unless specified otherwise like peppermint, spearmint is the herb called for, even though there are numerous varieties. Simple to grow—in fact almost difficult to hold back—it is best planted near the kitchen in the ground rather than a pot, for easy snipping. And it is best to plant it in a contained area. Another advantage to growing it easily from a slip, if you live out of the urban center, it is immune to our hungry suburban deer population, who don’t like any aromatics. So it’s safe to plant along with rosemary, lavender, and other fragrant herbs. My Moroccan mint (a varietal sister to spearmint) is reaching a good height to harvest and dry for tea. Cutting it back prevents it from flowering and seeding, allowing it to produce fresh mint leaves throughout the summer and fall.
tabbouli with quinoa © 2015 Linda Dalal Sawaya
For me, the aroma of spearmint stirs my appetite for salads! Notorious Middle Eastern salads created with mint as a star include our basic salad dressed with lemon, garlic, and olive oil, tabbouli, fattoush, yogurt and cucumber salad, my father’s tomato and garlic salad, and the Lebanese cabbage and coleslaw featured in my recent Italian parsley article. It is an ingredient in last week’s stuffed chard rolls, as well as in summer grape leaves, stuffed Lebanese summer squash, and in vegan spinach pies. The best falafel I had in Beirut was stuffed with spearmint and Italian parsley, along with tomatoes, lifit, and tahini sauce—just the way I love it. The yalangi (a Turkish word for vegetarian grape leaves) that I tasted in Beirut as stuffed eggplants including spearmint, were fantastic served cold at a restaurant called Ta Marbouta in Hamra.
ijhee © 2015 Linda Dalal Sawaya
In Arabic, the word for mint is na’na’. The Lebanese omelette, ijhee, is made with Italian parsley, mint, and green onions—a noble culinary trio. I just came across a reference to Lebanese mint in a research paper written 10 years ago about Lebanese in New England. This quote speaks to the essential relationship of na’na’ with the Lebanese spoken by a Lebanese couple who were house hunting: “…that was when I first noticed the mint growing everywhere. It was running through the flowerbeds and even through the cracks in the foundation of the house, through the concrete! We knew immediately this must have been a Lebanese house at some point. Who else would have large plots of mint around here? We laughed at the hearty nature of the herb—it is so resilient! It will keep on growing despite having no Lebanese owners tending it.” These words also speak as a cautionary note to planting it in an unconfined area! Nevertheless, It is easy to pull up and you can give the rooted starts to your friends, even if they’re not Arabic!
baba ghannouj with spearmint © 2015 Linda Dalal Sawaya
My dear friend, Gus Haddad, who opened Portland’s Al-Amir restaurant in the 1980s and is from my family village of Douma, Lebanon, served the best baba ghannouj, seasoned with the secret addition of dried mint. I adapted my mother’s baba ghannouj recipe in Alice’s Kitchen with the addition of just a bit of dried mint. It is superb.
Other typical Eastern Mediterranean uses are in sweet tea, such as Moroccan mint tea; my favorite liquid form is added to fresh squeezed, homemade summer lemonade—a sprig of mint truly adds unmistakable flavor and makes it festive (think nonalcoholic mojito).
laban ou khyar © 2015 Linda Dalal Sawaya
Mojitos, mint julep (from the Arabic beverage jallab), and creme de menthe are alcoholic mint beverages that can be a digestif, as spearmint has beneficial properties for digestion. With summer approaching, I will try my hand at mojitos!
Bring on the menthe spicata for vegans and carnivores alike! Plant it in your kitchen garden!
tomato, spearmint, and garlic salad © 2015 Linda Dalal Sawaya
—Linda Dalal Sawaya, daughter of two Lebanese immigrants, is a Portland, Oregon artist, cook, Master Gardener, and author of Alice’s Kitchen: Traditional Lebanese Cooking