When you have a large crop of shiso from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve shiso:
- Steam it with tofu.
- Sauté it with garlic scapes.
- Sauté it with green onions and hot peppers such as cayenne, jalapeño, or habanero, fresh or powdered.
- Sauté it with tofu and ginger.
- Sauté it with chicken and ginger.
- Sauté it with beef and onions.
- Add it to other sauté and stirfry dishes.
- Bake it with salmon and leeks.
- Bake it with beef and onions.
- Bake it with pork.
- Stuff bell peppers with shiso and rice and bake them.
- Top a pizza or flatbread with it, alone or with garlic.
- Add it to the filling of food pockets such as dumplings, pierogis, or empanadas.
- Add it to egg dishes like omelets and egg cups.
- Add it to pasta, stovetop or baked.
- Make a simple soup. A few ideas for simple soup combinations with shiso are as follows:
- Add it to other soups and broths. Learn how to make a basic soup here.
- Add it to a hot cereal with a base like oats, rice, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, or sorghum. See our Interesting Hot Cereal article here for more information.
- Toss it with rice. Drizzle with sesame oil, coconut aminos, or soy sauce.
- Toss it with quinoa and avocados.
- Toss it with buckwheat and celery. Drizzle with a creamy sauce of your choice.
- Add it to tacos and quesadillas.
- Add it to sandwiches and paninis.
- Toss it with blueberries and lemon verbena or lemon balm.
- Use larger shiso leaves as the "bread" of lettuce wraps.
- Use it as a Partial Base of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Make a Simple Salad. A few ideas for Simple Salad pairings with shiso are as follows:
- Tomatoes and red onions
- Spinach and cherries
- Cucumbers and avocados
- Cucumbers and peas
- Cucumbers and blanched green beans
- Watermelons and cilantro
- Lettuce and raspberries
- Lettuce and plums
- Arugula and peaches
- Radicchio and orange slices
- Endive and grapefruit slices
- Add it to other salads.
- Use it to wrap sushi. Alternatively, it can be tossed to make a sushi salad.
- Add it to protein rollups, usually made of meat and cheese.
- Make a pesto of shiso, pistachios, garlic, and lemon verbena.
- Make infused vinegar. Shiso-infused vinegar makes a fantastic salad dressing, among other uses. Shiso can be infused in vinegar on its own or in combination with dill, cilantro, or lemon balm.
- Make infused oil. Shiso-infused oil can be used as a salad dressing or drizzle. It can also be further processed into lotions, balms, and more.
- Make a tea. Shiso tea is best prepared as an infusion.
- Add it to a tea blend. A few ideas for infusion blends with shiso are as follows:
- Lavender and lemon balm
- Rose petals and lemon verbena
- Ginger and thyme
- Peppermint and cherry bark
- Make a tincture. An herb:solvent weight ratio of 1:2 at 75% alcohol is suggested for a fresh shiso leaf tincture. An herb:solvent weight ratio of 1:4 at 40% alcohol is suggested for a dried shiso leaf tincture. Learn more about tinctures here.
- Make herbal ice cubes to add to future beverages. Learn how to make herbal ice cubes in our Freezing Overview article here.
- Add it to pickles. Shiso can be added to many traditional pickling and quick-pickling combinations. A few pickling complements to shiso are parsnips, carrots, radishes, and green beans.
- Add it to a jam or jelly. Shiso pairs nicely with cherries and raspberries in jams and jellies, which can be canned or frozen.
- Blanch and freeze it to save it for later. Check out this article to learn more about blanching.
- Dry it to preserve it. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
Further Reading
Growing shiso? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Shiso is also featured in these articles: