If you’re looking for a creamier condiment to brighten your menu, you can check out my Mint Yogurt Sauce to strike the perfect balance between tangy, cool, and luscious flavors.
Ingredients You’ll Need
One of the best parts about making mint sauce for lamb is how few ingredients you need to get the freshest, most vibrant taste. In fact, you likely already have these simple ingredients in your kitchen, making this recipe a must whether you’re preparing for a special occasion or a quick weeknight dinner.
- Fresh mint: I highly suggest using fresh mint leaves or common garden mint for this mint sauce recipe. However, you should be able to find fresh mint at your local grocery store. If you are growing your own mint, then peppermint or spearmint varieties would both work.
- Sugar: There are many ways to add a touch of sweetness to this iconic condiment. Classic mint sauce recipes for lamb use granulated sugar, but you can also use a cane, coconut, or brown sugar if you’re looking for an alternative, pantry-ready option. Or, if you’d prefer a thicker, more complex sweetness, you can also use honey instead of raw sugar.
- Kosher salt: A pinch of salt is an excellent addition to this recipe, balancing its sweetness while bringing out its bright mint taste.
- Vinegar: Adding an acidic component to this lamb mint sauce is critical to enlivening it with savory, tart notes. The original British mint sauce calls for distilled malt vinegar, but you can use white wine vinegar (which I used) or apple cider vinegar if you don’t have any malt vinegar on hand.
- Boiling water
How to Make Mint Sauce from Mint Leaves?
Quick, simple, and hassle-free, this fresh mint sauce recipe is a cinch to make, regardless of your skill level. These step-by-step instructions will guarantee you can serve a fresh, tangy, and savory sauce in less than five minutes.
- Prepare the mint leaves: Remove the fresh mint leaves from their stems, chop them finely, then transfer them to a bowl. Or, you can put it together in a lidded heat-resistant jar as well.
- Add flavorings: Add the sugar, Kosher salt, and white wine vinegar to the chopped mint leaves, then stir the ingredients until thoroughly blended.
- Add the water: Slowly pour the boiling water over the other ingredients, then stir the mixture to combine.
- Cool: Set the jar aside and let it cool for a minimum of 30 minutes.
- Serve: Serve the cooled fresh mint sauce alongside the rest of your menu. Or, if you plan to use the condiment later, cover and refrigerate it until ready to use.
How to Store and Freeze?
Once you learn how to make mint sauce for lamb, you’ll want to use it alongside all your favorite recipes. These pro storage tips will ensure your leftover sauce stays as fresh as possible, whether you want to enjoy it later in the week or use it for long-term meal prep.
- Storage: After transferring it to an airtight container, you can store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. However, remember that the sauce will turn a darker green the longer it sits since the fresh mint loses its bright color during storage. Therefore, even if its taste doesn’t diminish, the sauce may not have the same bright green color as when you first prepared it.
- Freeze: The best way to freeze this easy mint sauce is in individual portions, ensuring effortless use later on. To do so, I recommend pouring the sauce into an ice cube tray and freezing it until solid. Then, remove the cubes from the tray and place them in a freezer-safe container, such as a Ziplock bag, with as much air removed as possible. Replace the container in the freezer, and you can use each individual serving whenever your menu calls for a serving of bright, cool sauce.
Other Ways to Use Mint Sauce
No one can deny that mint sauce with lamb is one of the most classic flavor combinations, from a succulent roast dinner to a smoky Grilled Rack of Lamb.
However, if you have extra sauce or want to try out a new menu, there are dozens of other mouthwatering pairings to try, a few of which I’ve detailed below:
- Incorporate it into salad dressings: This mint sauce makes a fantastic base for salad dressing recipes. Simply mix a tablespoon or two of this sauce with a bit of lemon juice and olive oil, and you’ll have a zesty, light dressing perfect for a bed of leafy greens.
- Add it to yogurt: If you’re like me, you love making a quick, gourmet-level dip you can use for all your favorite snacks. You can quickly transform this recipe into a mint dipping sauce by mixing 1-2 tablespoons into a serving of Greek yogurt and serving it with fresh veggies, pita bread, or as part of a mezze platter.
- Use it as a marinade for other meats, like chicken or fish: Want to add a brilliantly bright, herby flavor to your meats? Add a bit of this mint sauce to your marinade recipe, and its vibrant notes will beautifully compliment your main dish’s savory, succulent base.
- Spread over spring vegetables: You can enhance any veggie side by adding a dollop of this minty spread to your plate. In particular, mint sauce makes a great accompaniment for fresh or blanched peas and green beans (especially my Air Fryer Green Beans!), as well as heartier veggies such as roasted potatoes.
Expert Tips
Any chef—beginner or professional—can easily make this homemade lamb mint sauce. These tips will ensure you come out with the tastiest sauce possible, including expert suggestions for chopping, flavor adjustment, serving, and more.
- Mint stems: Since this recipe requires so much mint (you’ll need 1 large bunch), I encourage you to consider your herb’s freshness when deciding whether to use only the leaves or include the stems. Young, freshly picked stems—like the kind you grow in your home garden—are OK to use in this recipe. However, older stems—the kind you might find at your local grocery store—tend to have a harder, woodsier taste, which might negatively impact the overall flavor of your recipe. No matter which type of minty herb you use, it’s essential that you finely chop it to ensure the leaves fully release and evenly distribute their flavors into the sauce.
- Food processor: You may have seen that other mint sauce recipes ask you to use a food processor or blender to cut up your mint leaves more thoroughly and blend them with the other ingredients. However, though this is technically an option, you can achieve an ideal fineness by chopping your herbs with a sharp knife. Furthermore, processing your mint may bruise the delicate mint leaves, leaving you with a sauce that has a slightly bitter taste rather than the fresh, vibrant flavor that finely hand-chopped mint leaves can offer.
- Taste and adjust: The best mint sauce for lamb is one that you adjust according to your personal preference. That’s why I highly encourage you to use this recipe as a base, taste it before serving, and add more seasoning as necessary. I should also note that I find most jarred mint sauces to be too sweet for my taste, so I use a minimal amount of added sugar compared to other recipes. Therefore, if you prefer a sweeter profile, you may add more sweeteners to achieve your ideal balance of sweet and acidic flavors.
- Let it rest: If you have the time, this homemade mint sauce recipe should rest for 30 minutes before serving. This resting time ensures that the ingredients have time to develop and deepen their flavors.
- Adjust consistency: Depending on how you plan to use your mint lamb sauce recipe, you might want to adjust its consistency. As written, this recipe will result in a thicker sauce—more like a mint paste—which is ideal for serving with lamb dishes due to their rich meat flavor. However, if you’re looking for a thinner consistency, as you might when making a salad dressing or a saucy drizzle, all you need to do is add more water or vinegar to your mixture.
- Serve it at room temperature: Though I recommend storing it in the refrigerator, it has the best taste and consistency when served at room temperature. Therefore, if you’ve stored it in the fridge beforehand, I suggest taking it out at least 30 minutes before adding it to your dinner table.
FAQs
Mint sauce is a bright, vibrant, herb-based condiment often served with lamb dishes. In addition to fresh mint leaves, this thick sauce usually includes other ingredients, like sugar, vinegar, water, salt, and pepper, to enhance its flavor. Many store this mixture in a small jar, which you can likely find at your local grocery store.
Though mint jelly and mint sauce are common accompaniments for lamb dishes, they’re not the same. Mint jelly has a more gelatinous texture due to its inclusion of pectin, and it tends to be sweeter because of its higher concentration of sugar—especially American mint jelly. By comparison, mint sauce is more herbaceous, spreadable, and tart. Because of its fresh mint base, it boasts a more potent mint flavor, and its use of vinegar and sugar creates a more vibrant flavor profile than mint jelly.
Lamb and mint sauce is such an iconic pairing because the refreshing, minty taste of the sauce often helps balance the richness of lamb—especially back in the day, when lamb had a more pronounced gamey flavor. Together, lamb and mint sauce create a savory, fresh, and succulent base that’s as delicious as it is good for digestion.
If you try this mint sauce recipe or any other recipe on Foolproof Living, please take a minute to rate it and leave a comment below. It will be a great help to others who are thinking of making the recipe. If you take some pictures, be sure to share them on Instagram using #foolproofeats so I can share them in my stories.
Mint Sauce for Lamb Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh mint, rinsed, from 1 large bunch (~ 2 cups (34 grams) packed leaves)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, or cane, coconut, brown sugar, or honey
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons boiling water
Instructions
- Remove the fresh mint leaves from their stems*. Finely chop the mint leaves and transfer them to a heat-resistant jar with a lid.
- Add sugar, kosher salt, and white wine vinegar. Give it a quick stir.
- Slowly pour in the boiling water and stir to combine.
- Set it aside and let it cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. If not using right away, cover and refrigerate.
Notes
- Yields: This recipe makes ½ cup of mint sauce, ideal for serving with two racks of lamb. The nutritional information below is for the full recipe.
- Mint stems*: You are welcome to use the stems of freshly picked mint, but I wouldn’t recommend using the stems of store-bought mint as they tend to be woodsy.
- Adjust the sweetness and consistency: I find most jarred versions of this mint lamb sauce to be too sweet, so this recipe is minimally sweetened. However, you can add more sugar if you prefer. The same goes for the consistency. If you find it too thick, feel free to add more boiling water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency.
- Making Ahead and Storage Instructions: You can make this sauce a day in advance and store it in the fridge for up to 2-3 days. Keep in mind, though, that it will lose its bright green color and vibrancy as it sits.
- Freezing: You can make a large batch of this mint sauce and freeze it using an ice cube tray. Place 1 tablespoon of the mint sauce in each cube and freeze. After they are frozen, remove the cubes from the tray and place them in a storage container in your freezer. You can have the perfect portion anytime you need mint sauce in your favorite recipe. Check out the blog post for other recipe ideas to use your sauce in.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Really good! I’ve had mint growing beside my house for years and this is the first time I’ve tried to make anything with it! I’ve really been missing out!
Hello Linda,
Happy to hear that you liked it Linda.
Thanks for coming by and taking the time to leave a review.
It was exactly what I was looking for. I made it exactly written.