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Grab the fresh herbs from your garden and try this recipe for slow cooker simple syrup.  It’s so easy and smells and tastes great!

Slow Cooker Herb-Infused Simple Syrup

Contributing post from Jill @ The Galactagoddess

One of our favorite summer ingredients is mint!  We are fortunate to have A TON of it on our property.  It grows like a weed, in our herb boxes, outside of our herb boxes, alongside our garden, over by our house.  It is EVERYWHERE!  So, of course, we are always trying to think of new uses.

Many, many years ago (pre-kiddos…so technically two lifetimes ago!)  we decided to host a Mojito Party.  Young and naive, never thinking of shortcuts, we muddled mint for hours and hours the night before our guests arrived.  Silly us!  If only we had thought of making a mint infused simple syrup, throwing a few fresh mint leaves in each glass, and calling it day!

Well, now that I know how easy to make mint simple syrup in my slow cooker, we may just have to have mojitos more often!

Slow Cooker Herb-Infused Simple Syrup

But why limit it to mint?!  You can use ANY herb to make simple syrup!!  In fact, I once had a watermelon basil martini that was to-die-for!  OK, OK…you also don’t need to limit simple syrup to alcoholic beverages either.  Here are some other ideas:

Favorite Uses for Herb Infused Simple Syrup

  • Iced Coffee/Iced Tea
  • Lemonade/Limeade
  • Mojitos/Cocktails
  • Dressing for fruit salad

Now, this IS a wellness page, so I feel the need to address the fact that I am providing you a recipe with sugar.  I’m a firm believer of everything in moderation, and although we should all limit our sugar intake, there’s nothing wrong with a little extra sweetness in our lives every now and then.  BUT, because I try to be mindful, I did use an organic cane sugar versus a white refined sugar…mainly to make myself feel a little bit better about the situation.

Slow Cooker Herb Infused Simple Syrup

Yields: 1 cup simple syrup

Ingredients

  • 1-4 cups of fresh herbs (mint, basil, lavender, etc.)*
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water

*depending on the size of the herb…For example, lavender and oregano are quite petite, so a few sprigs would probably due.  We have A LOT of mint growing at our house, so I used a lot of it.

Directions

  1. De-stem leafier herbs.
  2. Place herbs, sugar, and water in slow cooker.
  3. Cook on “low” setting for 4 hours.
  4. Strain. (I used a mesh strainer, but did have very small amount of sediment.  If you have a ton of patience and want extra filtration, use a coffee filter.)
  5. Enjoy!

Jill Petrush RodgersJill Petrush Rogers is a full-time working Mama to two very active little boys. After becoming a Mama, she realized that her mission is to help others meet and/or exceed their own personal breastfeeding goals.  And so, she became a Certified Lactation Counselor.  You can follow Jill’s personal journey on her blog The Galactagoddess and on Facebook.

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Jessica Liggett
9 years ago

How do you store this and how long will it last?

Kelly McNelis
Admin
9 years ago

I think you could store it at room temperature for a couple of days or in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

raj
raj
9 years ago

have you tried this with anything other than herbs? safe fruits or spices? any results?

Kelly McNelis
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  raj

I haven’t tried anything else yet, Raj.

Chelsea Palmer
Chelsea Palmer
1 year ago
Reply to  raj

I’m stopping by 8 years later to mention, I used the rough process above to do this with 4 halved lemons and a bit of strong ginger juice, and it came out amazing!

(I also modified to brown sugar, as that’s what I was seeking to use up from my pantry, and a bit less water to make a molasses-like “rich simple syrup.”) The process as described here definitely holds up for other add-ins.

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[…] fresh cilantro, mint, and basil in my yard.  I’ve already used the mint in slow cooker simple syrup and garlic-mint pork loin. […]

Julie Dixon
1 year ago

Do you leave the lid on the slow cooker while this is happening?