Fresh herbs - how to use

ALIBOBSY

Soft leaved herbs such as coriander/basil/mint also go great mixed into salads with your leaves. Thyme and sage make good stuffing mixes.
You can mix a herb (or selection) up with butter and freeze in little pats which then can go straight on top of cooking fish/meat/steak. Mint is great in tea and summery drinks.

ali x

morg_monster

Homemade pesto is so awesome, but I'm always amazed how little you actually get out of a massive load of plants!! I have made traditional basil pesto but also parsley and chive, mmm.

Herb butter is amazing on british sweetcorn (need to wait a couple of months for that though) as well as new potatoes, I usually just put parsley and chives in. Or add a clove or 2 of garlic and use it to make garlic bread.

I also just chop random herbs onto any salad I make, find it really adds to the flavour especially if you are on a diet and trying to cut out salad dressings! Faves are parsley, coriander, chives for that.

wayne1983

Thanks for the tips. I was just curious what was best, and what to go with whatever. Ive never had pesto though!:beer:

Lotus-eater

I was just reading about parsley pesto the other day. I think there is loads of recipes on the net.


Your mint btw. Put a sprig into boiling water and leave for a while, lovely refreshing mint tea.
Depends on your mint I would think, but mine makes lovely tea, much much better than the shop bought dried stuff.

pookiewn

You can make a herb salad, just pick some of the soft herbs and add them to some salad leaves. Mix with a lemon dressing (1 part lemon juice, 2 parts oil) and you end up with a very fresh, aromatic salad and can be served with anything!
I also cook my new potatoes with a sprig of mint and then add some chopped mint and chives to potato salad dressing.

RAS

Sage with any sort of stew, veggie, meat or fish.

oregano with anything Italian/tomato based.

Coriander seed is wonderful with lamb (mix with yoghurt and marinade) and in a spiced tomato sauce on chickpeas.

Red kidney beans with industrial quantities of thyme and some coconut cream is a good west indian dish and scrummier than you would imagine.

In winter flat leaved parsley and chives/welsh onions are added to my salad leaves for flavour.

foreign_correspondent

I made a cheese omlette the other day and sprinked fresh chives on it - was delicious - use chives anywhere a mild oniony flavour would work - on salad, or mixed in with cottage cheese/sour cream as a topping for jacket spuds.

wayne1983

Ive read herbs are good for you too so thats good. I used parsley today with fish and it was nice flavour.
Is it ok to leave the herbs int the greenhouse or not?, cheers,:beer:

EmptyPockets

If you eat scrambled eggs, you can't beat freshly chopped chives, added just before serving. Yummy! - don't add them too early though as too much cooking seems to diminish their flavour.

I use parsley in homemade fishcakes.

Coriander goes well with curries, salsas, and mexican dishes (chilli, etc).

Oregano and basil...? PIZZA! A homemade tomato, onion and basil sauce. Mmmm mmm!

diluvsdiscounts

My parsley had a sudden growth spurt last week and wouldn't stand up so I cut a huge piece off it and DD took all the leaves off it and shredded them,we then put them into 2 ice cube trays added water and froze them.I now have a bag full of little parcels of parsley in the freezer for whenever I need them.
This week I have made a beef stew and put 2 cubes into my usual recipe and we all agreed it had so much more flavour,so when I made a lasagne again using my usual recipe but adding the frozen parsley ,delicious!!