My Lemon Verbena plant grew so big that I didn’t know what to do with it. It kept growing bigger the more I trimmed it. One of the lessons I learned from gardening is that; when we let go of the old, give away what we don’t need or trim off, we get more in return (in time). We allow new leaves to grow, we get to think afresh and allow new beginnings.

I bought Lemon Verbena for the first time some years back, to use it to flavour cakes. After the first taste of a Lemon Verbena cake, I could not stop experimenting with other baked treats. During covid lockdown, I started a small gardening project, and one of the plants I sowed was the Lemon Verbena plant. 

Later, after feeling very bad about trimming it off and throwing away a lot of fresh Lemon Verbena, I learned that, Lemon Verbena is not just for baking, however, it has other good properties, such as healing flu, helps to improve sleep quality for those with insomnia and joint muscle pain caused by exercise. It is also rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that may help to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress in our bodies.

There are many ways to use Lemon Verbena to include it in our wellness routine. I use it to flavour cakes, muffins and cookies. As well as for tea, smoothies, salads and syrups. However, it is advised that if  one is pregnant or breastfeeding to not use any form of Lemon Verbena. 

Recently, I discovered Mandel Bread, a type of cookie similar to the famous Italian biscotti. Mandel Bread is made using similar ingredients of the biscotti but the difference is oil (not butter). Its basic ingredients are flour, almond, sugar, eggs and oil.

According Wikipedia, Mandel Bread is a type of cookie found in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine (although its precise origin is unknown) and popular amongst Eastern European Jews. The Yiddish word ‘mandlbroyt’ literally means almond bread, a reference to its common ingredient of almonds. It is typically formed by baking a loaf which is then cut into small slabs and twice-baked in order to form a crunchy exterior. The cookies were popular in Eastern Europe among rabbis, merchants and other itinerant Jews as a staple dessert that kept well.

My Mandel Bread has Lemon Verbena, Almonds and Pecan nuts, it is very very delicious.