Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Herb guide to Stevia along with all the Stevia containing recipes presented on this site, with 3 recipes in total.

e This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Stevia as a major herb flavouring.

Stevia represents a genus of about 150 species of herbs and shrubs belonging to the Asteraceae (aster/daisy) family. The plants are native to subtropical and tropical South America and Central America and are characterized by having an extremely sweet taste. The leaves of the plant contain sweet glycosides that are based on steviol and which forms stevioside and rebaudioside the two main steviol glycosides in the stevia leaf. There are some reports indicating that steviol may be mutagenic though more recent reports indicate that this is not the case.



The main cultivar of Savia is Stevia rebaudiana (also known as Candy Leaf, Sugar Leaf, Sweetleaf, Sweet Honey Leaf, Sweet Herb of Paraguay). For many centuries the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay and Brazil have used this plant (known as ka'a he'ê 'sweet herb') as a sweetener in yerba mate (holly tea) and there is interest from food companies in extracts from the plant. Stevia leaf tastes very sweet, and have a liquorice-like flavour and gram for gram stevioside tastes 300 times sweeter than sugar. Fresh leaves can be used in salads or they may be added to teas, ice-creams, sorbets etc (anything that requires a sweetener). The dried leaves can be ground and used as a sweetener or soaked in water and the liquid used in making preserves. They can also be powdered and used as an additive or sugar substitute in sugar teas.



Fresh and dried stevia leaves are intensely sweet in taste, though with a herby and slightly earthy overtone. Personally I like this, but some do find it a little unpleasant. If you do not like the taste of the fresh or dried herb, you may be better creating a sweet extract from the leaf (see below).



Stevia leaves can be collected as needed (but are best in the Autumn). Leaves can also be dried on a sunny windowsill or in a low oven before being powdered. The powdered leaf can be used as a substitute for sugar, with 1 tbsp dried and ground stevia leaf being equivalent to about 100g of sugar in terms of flavour. A liquid sweetener can be made by pouring 1 litre boiling water over 1 tablespoon dried leaves and leaving to infuse. Refrigerate and use within a few days or freeze for later. To make a syrup, place 4 teaspoons dried powdered leaves in a saucepan with 2 cups water, simmer slowly for 10&3x2013;15 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.