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Cooking with Fresh Herbs

Herbs turn simple, everyday meals into complex and richly flavored feasts with just a few simple steps added to the kitchen routine. Here are a few quick ideas for using herbs -- the more often herbs are used, the easier it is to see that they are a great way to eat more healthfully. Heavy sauces and other fats are easily replaced with the welcome freshness and enlivened flavor of fresh herbs. It is easiest to do this with a small array of home grown herbs in pots that stay in a sunny window in winter and then move into bigger pots to spend the summer by the door closest to the kitchen. They will be used the most regularly if they are right near where they will be used. It is a good idea to also have an herb garden for more variety and quantity, but the real day to day work horses of the herb world like to stay close to the cook.

• A simple herb salad of finely chopped parsley, cilantro, and mint with a drizzle of olive oil, some good sea salt and the juice of half a lemon or lime is a great condiment for fresh fish, roasted chicken, grilled vegetables or meats, and anything else that can use a quick burst of flavor. Play with the proportions and types of herbs. This is something that can easily be customized to the mood of the day, the food being used, and what’s available in the garden.

• A few sprigs of chopped sage or rosemary added to scrambled eggs give breakfast a new dimension of flavor. A great spring dish is to make a simple cheese omelet mixing a cup of finely chopped herbs into the eggs. This becomes a green pancake packed with flavor.

• Herb stems added to the stock pot by the handful will create depth to soups and broths. Cilantro or parsley or basil, chopped fine are a great addition at the end of the cooking process for soups of all types. Clear soups will become enlivened and creamy or pureed soups will develop a mellow complexity.

• Keep a container of washed and chopped herbs in the fridge, mixed with chopped scallions if you like, and toss these into green salads, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, anywhere you can use an easy addition of flavor. Doing the prep work ahead of time can give you a week’s worth of meal improvement in one easy step. Parsley and cilantro and dill are well suited to this use. Basil is best kept intact and treated like cut-flowers (cut stems and place in water and keep on the counter) since it does not like the cold of the refrigerator.

• A great and uplifting brew can be made with handfuls of lemon balm, various mints, and even some lavender sprigs. Just drop them into a large pot of boiling water, let steep a 5 to 10 minutes, strain and sweeten with honey if desired. Drink hot or cold.