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Cooking with Herbs

A guide to cooking with herbs

Cooking with Herbs can make your food more delicious. These days many do not know anymore how to use the right herbs. Adding herbs can make your food more tasty and spicy.

Basil, parsley, rosemary: herbs taste as different as they look. Herbs make a big difference in salads as well; it tastes much better with the right herbs. Put more flavor and excitement in your meals with herbs.

They must be lush green and crispy fresh, then herbs taste best. In the kitchen, they give many dishes that decisive kick and are the perfect addition to salads, rich in vitamins and essential oils. Many herbs are also available dried, but they don’t come close to the aroma of fresh goods. Meals not only taste better and look more beautiful, but the smell is also mouthwatering as well.
Herbs are a helper for digestion and have a lot of vitamins and minerals.

Herbs can help you create delicious meals you’ll love to eat. But many people don’t know how to use them. Herbs also feed the health-promoting bacteria in your gut and nurture the optimal kinds of bacteria throughout your microbiome.

Plus, you can usually find them fresh or dried for affordable prices at the grocery store or farmers’ market. Now is a great time to plant herbs outside or start your own kitchen garden.

Here are five things to keep in mind about cooking with herbs:

  • If you’re buying fresh herbs, you should remove any wilted leaves and elastic or strings and trim the stems.
  • With fresh herbs, wait to wash them until right before using them, or they will wilt.
  • To store soft-stemmed herbs like basil and cilantro, you should treat them like a bouquet of flowers and put them in a cup or jar filled with about 3/4 water. Keep basil at room temperature, but cover any other soft herbs with a plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator. Then, change the water when it gets cloudy. They should keep it for at least a week.
  • To store hard-stemmed herbs like rosemary and oregano, wrap them in a damp paper towel or kitchen towel and put them in plastic or an airtight container.
  • Dried herbs should be added toward the beginning of cooking to release their flavor, and fresh herbs should be added toward the end of cooking to maintain freshness.

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Popular kitchen herbs and their uses

Wild garlic: With its aroma of garlic, wild garlic is ideal for the preparation of pesto or dips. If you want to use it for cooking, you should only add it at the end of the cooking time, as it quickly loses its aroma when heated.

Basil: With tomatoes, basil is an absolute classic. It also goes well with salads, pasta, pizza, or desserts. Basil should always be used raw and only added to warm dishes before serving; otherwise, it loses flavor. See > Easy Vegan Pesto (5 minutes!) 

Dill: Dill is almost indispensable for cucumber salad. The fresh, spicy note of the dill also goes very well with dips and potato dishes. If you have stomach or digestive problems, dill can have a calming effect.

Coriander: The intense aroma of coriander gives Asian curries and soups their typical taste. Tomato salad gets a finer touch from coriander, and you can also use the stems.

Cress: The little green herb gives salads and sandwiches a pleasant spiciness. They are also very suitable for garnishing dishes.

See > WATERCRESS SALAD WITH ORANGES AND CUCUMBER.

Mint: The aromatic leaves are a popular cocktail ingredient and add a fresh touch to salads, soups, and desserts. There are a lot of varieties of mint. See > RAW VEGAN DESSERTS  and > Mint Coconut-Cashew Cream Cheese Spread

Oregano: Oregano is typical for many dishes in Italian cuisines, like pizza, pasta sauce, or pickled vegetables. It unfolds its aroma best when it has been dried and cooked. But it also refines dishes fresh. See >Fresh Vegan Oregano Pesto.

Parsley: You can use parsley more than any other herb. It refines salads, soups, potato, and vegetable dishes. The intensely tasting flat-leaf parsley is particularly popular in Mediterranean cuisine. There are also varieties with curly leaves. It develops its aroma best when freshly chopped and added to the plates at the end of preparation. Parsley contains a lot of vitamin C and tastes good in a salad or pesto.

Rosemary: The Mediterranean herb is ideal for hearty potato dishes. Either pluck the needles from the stalks or use the whole stalks and cook with them, but remove the stalks before eating. Rosemary has a calming effect on the nerves and an antispasmodic effect if you make tea with it.

Chives: The strong taste of onions goes perfectly with dips, salads, and mushroom dishes. Cut into small and sprinkle raw over the food.

Most of the herbs bought in the supermarket do not last long.

Some herbs you can grow on the windowsill. If you want to keep your herbs longer, use local varieties such as parsley and chives, sow them yourself, or buy robust plants from the nursery. In summer, many herbs thrive in the garden or on the balcony.

Store fresh herbs properly.

The herbs have the strongest taste and intense aroma during the season. Herbs you buy locally at a farmer’s market are usually untreated, and you can enjoy them without hesitation.

The herbs taste fresh best, but you can store them for up to a week. The best is to place it in the refrigerator in a glass container or plastic bag immediately after purchase.

As an alternative to fresh herbs, you can use dried and frozen herbs for cooking.

How To Freeze Fresh Herbs And Store Them For Later

See also >MICROGREENS ARE DELICIOUS AND A HEALTHY SUPERFOOD.