Litehouse Freeze-dried Lemon Grass Review

I have purchased and used a number of freeze-dried herb products from Litehhouse™ Foods. Their Sage and Parsley are of decent quality, if not especially remarkable, and I have purchased those more than once. Unfortunately, I have yet to come across a commercially produce dried Lemongrass that was really worth the money, and this version from Litehouse™ is no better.

Aroma, Texture, and Taste

On opening the jar, there is not much in the way of a lemon grass aroma and the sections of stalk are actually quite thick and woody. The label claims that you can just add water to produce the same quality as fresh but a simple taste test of the dry pieces made me doubt the claim. It was clearly lemon grass I was tasting but the effect was weak and the woodiness did not soften much with chewing.

Using the Soaked Lemon Grass

*The product when soaked in boiling water*

Lemon Grass often features in soups, especially in Thai cuisine, and I tried adding a teaspoon to boiling water and steeping for 5 minutes to test the quality that way. Again, the label suggests that 1 teaspoon of the dried is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of the fresh but that is, in my opinion, an optimistic claim. The flavor was very week and it seemed you me that, to produce the same flavor as the same amount of fresh, you would have to add enough of the dry to make a thick, porridge like consistency that would be inedible due to the tough woodiness.

*A ‘Paste’ made from Litehouse Freeze-dried Lemon Grass*

I tried making a paste by adding a little boiling water to a couple of tablespoons of the product and then grinding it in my mortar. Even several minutes of considerable effort failed to reduce the woody bits to anything useful and I gave up after that. The taste was improved a little, strength-wise, but the result, to my mind was not worth it.

Overall

Ultimately, I have to pronounce this product a failure. I thought it might be useful to have on hand for an emergency but, to be honest, I don’t really have that many ‘Lemon Grass Emergencies’ and this item wouldn’t be of much use anyway. I threw the rest of the jar away…

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