Basil is one of my favorite fresh herbs. I love the aroma that a basil plant gives to an herb garden, the scent on my hands when I’ve picked some leaves for a recipe, and the flavor that it gives to anything I’m making. Basil is a great addition to sauces, salads, and so much more.  One thing I love to add basil to is butter.  It makes the most amazing herb butter for breads, hot pasta, or even to top fish, chicken, or beef. My favorite is homemade Basil Butter with Lemon.

This post was first published July 9, 2015. I added a printable recipe card and republished it here for my new readers to enjoy.

Lemon Basil Compound Butter Recipe:

Ingredient Checklist:

• 1/2 cup butter – at room temperature
• 2 tbsp, fresh basil, sliced 
• 1/2 fresh lemon
• sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• parchment or wax paper

How To Make Basil Butter With Lemon:

Use a fork and blend the butter to a smooth consistency in a small bowl. Or you can use the bowl of a food processor to do the blending if you prefer.

Add 1-2 tsp of fresh lemon juice to the butter and continue blending.

Wash, dry, and coarsely chop the fresh basil leaves.

Stir the basil into the softened butter.

Combine butter with sea salt and ground pepper to taste, stirring until well mixed.

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the butter mixture onto a sheet of parchment or wax paper.

Form the butter into a log and wrap the parchment paper (or piece of plastic wrap) around the butter.  Place in the refrigerator to chill until the butter has returned to a harder consistency.

When the butter has hardened and you are ready to serve, remove it from the refrigerator and cut it into slices.

Serve with fresh baked bread or rolls, baked potatoes, your favorite pasta, corn on the cob, or atop broiled seafood and steak.  Or eat it with a spoon.  It’s seriously that good!  This compound herbed butter recipe is good with anything you enjoy using butter on for easy extra flavor.

This simple recipe is a great way to make your brunch recipes pop with extra flavor. It is so good on biscuits! Or kick up your dinner vegetables by adding a little of this lemon basil butter to your green beans or zucchini. It is a quick way to jazz up easy dinner recipes.

Recipe Note:

You can use salted or unsalted butter for this recipe. Just think about what you will be having for dinner tonight. Unsalted butter is great on breads while salted butter is great on meats (unless you have already heavily salted your meat).

You may want to add a couple of crushed garlic cloves to your compound butter. It is amazing that way too. It just depends on what you will be using it on really. You could even go crazy and add 2 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese. I won’t judge you and you know it will be the easiest way to make your garlic basil butter even more amazing! This is such a great way to make weeknight dinners really pop with flavor.

For Storage:

Roll the parchment paper covered butter in aluminum foil to hold it tightly shut in the refrigerator. Or drop in a freezer bag and place the freezer for long term storage.

Printable Recipe Card For Basil Butter: