Recipe: Homemade fresh mint sauce (great with lamb)

Whenever we have lamb, mint sauce is a must. In the past, we have used store-bought mint sauce, but this time I decided to make my own (since I read somewhere that homemade mint sauce tastes far superior and is quite simple to make).

If you look online, you will find many recipes for mint sauce - using malt vinegar, red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar. However, it is advisable not to use malt vinegar as it is said to overpower the flavour of the lamb. It is better to use a wine vinegar. Since I had red wine vinegar in the pantry, that's what I decided to go with. We also had fresh mint leaves from our herb garden, so that was very handy. 

One word of advice is to make the mint sauce at least 2 hours in advance (some recipes say 20 mins but that's not long enough for the flavours to infuse). When it was first made, I tasted it and it's didn't taste quite right (yet) but after the flavours started to develop (after 2 hours), it tasted really nice and especially good with the roast lamb that we just made. 

Homemade fresh mint sauce

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

2 tsp of brown sugar

2 tbsp of red wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar)

3 tbsp of boiling water

A pinch of salt

1. Place mint leaves in a bowl, add the sugar and pour over the boiling water. Stir well and leave to cool.

2. Stir in the vinegar and salt. Taste and add more salt if required. 

3. Leave to stand for 2 hours in a cool place, and serve in a sauce boat or small ramekin with a spoon. 

The perfect accompaniment to lamb!

Stay tuned for the roast rack of lamb recipe. ;) (will post it soon so those who are interested can still make it for this Sunday's roast)

As promised, click here for the recipe for roast rack of lamb with champ (Irish mashed potatoes) and mint sauce.