20 Recipes for Mint Lovers

By Food & Wine
Updated June 28, 2019
Greg DuPree
With its refreshing and fragrant flavor, mint is a welcome addition to sweet and savory meals. We love it in a Spanish tortilla with yogurt and sweet peas, a minty pesto as a perfect accompaniment to lamb, and a cooling watermelon salad with mint and lime for summer dessert. Better yet, wash it all down with a glass of chilled mint tea. There’s a reason it’s such a popular herb—read on for more of our favorite recipes.
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Pea Tortilla with Mint and Yogurt

© John Kernick
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A Spanish tortilla is like a frittata. Francis Mallmann makes a lovely version with yogurt, fresh mint and sweet peas, baked in an oven (preferably a wood-fired oven) until just set. It's delicious served warm or at room temperature.

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Minty Green Olive-–Celery Salsa

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Chef Tim Cushman's bright, briny salsa, full of vitamin E–rich olives, is more like a crunchy tapenade. It's delicious over white fish like hake.

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Mint Pesto

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Mint and lamb are a classic pairing. Grace Parisi riffs on the match by kneading mint pesto into ground lamb, grilling the patties, then crumbling them into an orzo-and-feta-salad.

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Penne with Swordfish, Mint, and Pine Nuts

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In this Sicilian dish, pasta, pine nuts, and chunks of swordfish are tossed in mint-spiked olive oil, with more fresh mint thrown in at the end. The combination is irresistible.

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Watermelon Salad with Mint and Lime

John Kernick
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Matt Neal calls this supremely simple fruit salad the ultimate refresher on a hot day. For a grown-up version, he adds splashes of rum. "It's even more satisfying, then," he jokes.

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Mint Tea

Photo © Sara Forte
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Hot mint tea is a favorite in Morocco, where it’s served in small glasses any time of day or night. It’s very sweet and packed with mint flavor. We love it cold as well; let the tea cool completely and then strain it into ice-filled glasses.

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Butter Bean Salad with Lime and Mint

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The secret to this delicate and refreshing butter bean salad is the dressing, made with cold, tangy buttermilk, olive oil and lime juice. The Lees call it "the flavors of a Southern summer."

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Vermicelli with Chicken Skewers and Nuoc Cham

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The high acidity, citrus and mineral flavors, and slight sweetness of a German Riesling are the perfect foils for the sweet and savory taste of this dish.

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Roasted Zucchini with Ricotta and Mint

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Flavored with fennel and cumin seeds, this quick side dish (or vegetarian main course) has a fun Indian flavor. While chef Sheamus Feeley likes to add pequin peppers, any chile flakes work well.

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Olive-Mint Pesto Meatballs with Fettuccine

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Some cooks are surprised when F&W's Grace Parisi tells them she mixes pesto into meatballs to add flavor quickly. If you're pressed for time, good store-bought pesto works too.

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Spicy Brussels Sprouts with Mint

Gabriele Stabile
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The key to the dish is to almost burn the brussels sprouts; the charred flavor is irresistible.

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Kyoto No. 2

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England's Fever-Tree tonic water (available in U.S. grocery and specialty stores) has a refreshing astringency that makes it Angus Winchester's choice for this tangy, mint-infused drink.

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Spring Peas with Mint

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Pairing Suggestion: Vinegary dishes and wine can be a terrible combination. But the sharp chopped red onion Mark Ladner tosses with these tangy peas makes the recipe delicious with a lightly tannic red.

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Mint Ice Cream

Frances Janisch
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This exceptionally creamy ice cream relies on two unexpected ingredients: corn starch (to help thicken it) and cream cheese (to make it scoopable).

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Minty Salsa Verde

Abby Hocking
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This mint-infused salsa verde from chef April Bloomfield gets a delicious briny hit from salted anchovies, making this an excellent accompaniment to juicy roast lamb.

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Grilled Figs with Ham, Walnuts, and Mint Cream

Christopher Hirsheimer
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This appetizer, ripe figs are stuffed with walnuts, wrapped in ham and kissed on the grill. It's a riff on devils on horseback inspired by the late, great cookbook author Richard Olney’s love of seasonal ingredients.

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Mint and Pea Soup

© Andrew Montgomery
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Mint gives this soup a wonderfully fresh taste, and it makes a perfect lunch with some bread and cheese on the side.

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Thin Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives, Feta, and Mint

Greg DuPree
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For a weeknight when speed is key, whip up this one-pot pasta. Whole cherry tomatoes, briny olives, salty feta cheese, and fresh mint and oregano, and make a Greek-inspired and satisfying meal for a summer evening with very little effort.

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Masala Grilled Vegetables with Spicy Mint Chutney

Greg DuPree
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Grilled summer produce meets a chile-spiked herb dressing in this recipe. Using a blender or food processor to prepare this sauce safeguards the colors by instantly cutting and coating the herbs with oil, locking in the green.

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Fresh Mint Stracciatella Semifreddo

Greg DuPree
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Fistfuls of fresh mint are steeped in the custard base of this semifreddo; a slow simmer releases the herb’s oils into the base without leeching any color.

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