It’s time again for Mixology Monday. This month’s theme comes from Rowen at the Fogged In Lounge, and is all about vegetables. An interesting challenge to say the least. But then we like interesting challenges. 🙂

We wanted to get a little bit off the beaten track with the veggies we chose, so we gave it some thought. We decided on celery root for it’s sweet/savory balance and earthy flavor, and watercress for it’s sharp peppery flavor and hint of nuttiness. The recipes we built around them are both fairly simple, as we wanted to the relatively delicate flavors of the vegetables to shine.

Night Market

• 1 1/2 oz celery root infused vodka
• 1/2 oz shochu (we used a sweet potato and rice shochu)
• 1/4 oz Lillet Blanc
• 3-4 drops Angostura bitters

* Celery root vodka: Peel celery root, slice into thin strips. Add about 1 cup to 4 ounces of Sun Liquor vodka from Sun Liquor. Let sit for 4-5 days. Strain.

• Nose: Earthiness from the shochu, faint notes of celery root and spice from the bitters.
• Palate: Earthy sweetness from the shochu and celery root, then celery flavor with a little bit of spice from the bitters, brightened by some sweetness from the Lillet. This is followed by a pop of toasty celery seed and some bitterness, ends on savory coffee notes.

Hippie Chick

• 1 1/2 oz watercress vodka
• 1 1/2 oz gin (we recommend a floral one, we used Spy Hop)
• 1/2 oz green Chartreuse

* Watercress vodka: Stem watercress until you have 2-3 cups of leaves. Whomp up in a blender with 2-3 ounces of Sun Liquor vodka, then strain through a fine meshed sieve.

• Nose: Herbal notes from  the Chartreuse, and vegetal “cut grass” notes from the watercress.
• Palate: It starts very floral from the gin, mixed with the cut grass notes from the watercress that came across in the nose. Followed by a really big wave of peppery flavor from the watercress with some nutty notes, like sesame. The sweetness from the Chartreuse comes up along with the pepperiness and underpins it with bitter-sweet herbal notes. Long peppery finish.

These did both turn out to be light, fresh, delicately flavored cocktails, especially the Night Market (the flavors reminded Christa of shopping in Japan). Turns out veggies are very welcome additions to cocktail hour here at Booze Nerds. We’re holding out that they count as health food 🙂 Salut!

Update: Check out the roundup for some truly lovely cocktails.