LotR: Legolas’s Mirkwood Lembas

Welcome back, Tolkien-ites! For those just joining us, though, my husband and I have a tradition where we marathon The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in their entirety on New Years Day. Three movies, extended versions, 12 hours of Elves, Orcs, and Hobbits (oh my!). Last week I shared my recipe for Peregrin Took’s Second-Breakfast Carrot Cake Seed-Cakes. This week we continue our Middle Earth Menu in Mirkwood with some Spinach-Hazelnut Pesto Lembas inspired by the physics-defying elven prince, Legolas!

Click here to skip to the recipe for Legolas’s Mirkwood Lembas!

Legolas Greenleaf of Mirkwood

Legolas grew up in Mirkwood. Unlike in Lorien, where Galadriel’s magic acts a barrier against evil, or in Rivendell’s “place of peace and learning,” Mirkwood is infested by orcs, spiders, and other dark creatures. I bring this up because Legolas, though sharing the features of his fair-haired Sindar cousins to the south, is anything but a prancy pretty-boy with no knowledge of war.

It’s interesting that he and Gimli become such close friends since he and Legolas share a similar thrill in combat. I find it even more interesting because they technically are both outsiders to society. Legolas, though the son of a king, is in the minority of Sindar-descended elves in Mirkwood. But with his rough-and-tumble upbringing among the wood elves, it also makes him a cultural outsider to the elven kingdoms of the South.

With Gimli, one of the last of his kind — descended from formerly exiled and now dead dwarven nobility, they make quite a pair. Neither has a place to fit in, except in each other’s camaraderie.

Mirkwood Munchies

So where am I going with this? I wanted to make a different type of Lembas than the standard shortbread cookie you’re going to find all over the internet. I figured Legolas would be a good character to start with since he’s not from Lothlorien. It would make sense that each elven region would have a slightly different recipe for their calorie-laden waybread due to ingredients available and cultural tastes.

Since Mirkwood is more perilous, I figured its inhabitants would prefer nutrients over appearance in their lembas. And perhaps they’d make something stronger to combat the flavors in wild game. That’s why I chose to base this dish on my recipe for Spinach-Hazelnut Pesto.

I first used a variety of greens likely to sprout in Mirkwood’s dark forests — a bit of spinach, basil, and leeks. Heads-up, folks, the leek provides this bread with a powerful kick. I recommend serving pieces of this lembas warm with something creamy (like hummus, crowdie, or clotted cream) with a drizzle of honey if you’re not a huge fan of intense flavors.

The hazelnuts I added because they not only add a bitter, earthy note but also because of their long association with the fair-folk. They even are thought to protect one against “elf-shot” (rheumatism and other chronic pain disorders), which I thought thematically appropriate.

I chose to make this recipe vegan using vegetable shortening. Though if I were to make it again, I’d use lard, bacon fat, or butter. Just make sure to add three more tablespoons of butter should you choose to use it instead.

Like last week’s recipe, this one works with either all-purpose or gluten-free 1-to-1 flour if your guests have wheat dietary restrictions.

Sing for your Supper!

If you plan to cook the recipe off the site, keep scrolling. However, while access to recipes on the blog will always be free, I now have printable PDF recipe cards and thematic cook-along Spotify playlists as rewards for those who choose to support the blog.

The printable recipe card and playlist for Legolas’s Mirkwood Lembas will be available as a $2 donor reward on my Ko-Fi page until January 24, 2019, at 8 pm EST.

recipe

“Green are the leaves I leave in Mirkwood”