Mānuka Honey in the Kitchen: 5 Simple Recipes to Try
Most people put Mānuka honey on toast and stop there. It is worth pushing further — its resinous, faintly bitter character makes it far better suited to savoury cooking than a mild clover honey, which tends to read as simply sweet and disappear.
Five savoury recipes, none complicated, all built around what MGO 700+ actually tastes like.
1. Mānuka, soy and ginger roast vegetables
Serves 4 as a side.
Toss 800g of chopped carrots, parsnips and pumpkin in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 200°C for 30 minutes. Meanwhile whisk 2 tablespoons Mānuka honey, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, a thumb of grated ginger and a squeeze of lemon.
Pour the glaze over the vegetables for the final 8 minutes only and return to the oven. Adding it earlier will burn it — honey caramelises fast at roasting temperatures.
2. The house dressing
Makes enough for several salads.
Whisk together 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon Mānuka honey, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Shake in a jar.
The bitterness that makes Mānuka distinctive is exactly what a dressing wants — it gives structure rather than just sweetness. Particularly good over bitter leaves: radicchio, rocket, endive.
3. Honey-glazed halloumi with lemon
Serves 2 as a starter.
Slice a block of halloumi into 1cm planks and pan-fry in a dry non-stick pan until deeply golden on both sides. Remove from the heat, then drizzle with 2 teaspoons Mānuka honey, a good squeeze of lemon and a crack of black pepper.
Off the heat matters — the residual warmth is enough to loosen the honey without cooking it.
4. Blue cheese and Mānuka on sourdough
Serves 2.
Toast thick slices of sourdough. Spread generously with a soft blue cheese while still warm, drizzle Mānuka over the top, finish with toasted walnuts and black pepper.
Sharp, salty blue against resinous honey is the single best pairing for this honey. If you try one thing from this list, make it this.
5. Mānuka and mustard glazed salmon
Serves 2.
Mix 1 tablespoon Mānuka honey with 2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard and a squeeze of lemon. Season two salmon fillets and pan-fry skin-side down for 4 minutes. Flip, cook 2 minutes more, then take the pan off the heat and spoon the glaze over, turning the fillets to coat in the residual heat.
Two rules worth remembering
Add it late. Honey burns at roasting and frying temperatures. Glazes go on in the last few minutes, or off the heat entirely.
Use less than you think. MGO 700+ is more intense than ordinary honey. A teaspoon usually does the work of a tablespoon of something milder.
The honey itself
Our MGO 700+ is single-origin New Zealand honey — one region, one season, never blended. Each batch is tested independently by Hill Laboratories, and the batch code on the jar traces back to that harvest and result. Each batch is graded on its own result.