Pandan Lemon Curd (Egg free)
This Pandan Lemon Curd is a fragrant and unique spread perfect on your breakfast toast or mixed in with plain yogurt. Similar to a lemon curd or my Blood Orange Lime Curd, it has a smooth consistency with a sweet citrus flavor. This Pandan Lemon Curd has the additional flavors of pandan and coconut and uses juice from real pandan leaves and coconut milk. Lemon curd usually contain eggs. In this recipe, I replaced the eggs with arrowroot starch, a great substitute for those who are sensitive to eggs. I love eating this Pandan Lemon Curd with yogurt and blueberries (for an extra bonus, add peaches and a sprinkle of hemp seeds)!
Featured Ingredient – Pandan
Pandan is a tropical plant that grows widely in Southeast Asia. It has long, slender, pointy leaves and smells grassy with hints of roasted brown rice, vanilla, almond, and rose. Pandan juice is often used in Southeast Asian desserts for its bright green color and fragrant flavor. The juice can be extracted by blending the leaves in a blender with water until smooth. It’s strained to remove any fibrous pieces and then used similarly to vanilla extract. The leaves are also added to dishes to infuse a barely-there aroma that makes food come alive. One time I was at a Thai restaurant and the hot tea had a pandan leaf knotted and floating in it. Oh my goodness, that tea tasted so amazing, I couldn’t get enough of it.
Where to get: I looked for Pandan leaves for quite some time before buying them. I didn’t know exactly what they looked like nor where to get them. I finally found some in the frozen section of a Chinese grocery store that sold Southeast Asian foods. They were located close to the frozen banana leaves. Fresh or frozen pandan leaves are your best bet. You can also buy pandan extract, however, it’s usually made purely of artificial ingredients.
Tips
To squeeze out as much juice as you can, use your hands after you can’t get any more juice pressed through the sieve. Uses your hand to get every last drop out!
Pandan Lemon Curd
Ingredients
- 5 leaves Pandan
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 3 tbsp arrowroot starch
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Cut the Pandan leaves into 1 inch pieces.
- Add the Pandan leaves and lemon juice into a high speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Strain the Pandan mixture through a sieve and into a bowl in order to separate the fibrous pieces from the juice. Discard the fibrous pieces.
- Pour the lemon Pandan juice into a saucepan, add the arrowroot powder, and stir to to remove any lumps. Add the coconut milk, sugar, salt. Stir.
- Heat mixture on medium heat, stirring constantly.
- When the mixture has thickened, remove from the heat. Add butter.
- Add the butter and stir to fully incorporate.
- Pour into glass container. Cool.
