Lemon Verbena Vinigrette

It's easy to capture the enchanting flavor of Lemon Verbena in high-quality olive oil, to use in salad dressing, marinades and baking. My favorite use is simple, basic vinigrette on salad greens, fresh from the garden.

I stuffed a clean, amber vitamin bottle with fresh Lemon Verbena leaves, then filled the bottle with as much olive oil as it would hold, while keeping all the leaves submerged. You can see in the photo that after straining out the leaves, the bottle was about half & half when it was full - half leaves and half oil. 

This may seem like a lot, meaning far more fresh leaves than you might choose to use of another herb, such as rosemary or parsley. But the delicate scent of Lemon Verbena requires more greenery to produce the most flavorful oil infusion. 

Let the bottle sit for a couple weeks, then strain. Shaking it during infusion isn't necessary. Pour the strained oil back into the bottle.

Here's an easy tip for making vinigrette... Uncap the bottle and pour in about half as much cider vinegar as there is oil in the bottle, screw on the cap, and shake it to mix up the dressing. Uncap again, shake in a bit of black pepper and salt, whatever you like, cap it and shake it again.

Now you have a rare and delicious vinegrette, which cannot be found in even the most elegant restaurants, at any price!

Lemon Verbena Vinigrette