Jul 10 2009
Use Fresh Herbs is a Great Way – part 1
Learning to use fresh herbs is a great way to spice up your cooking, making it tastier and better than ever before. There are infinite ways to use fresh herbs in your cooking. This means that you get to use your imagination to create new ways of using the herbs you choose every day! A benefit of using fresh herbs is that you will not need to use as much salt or fatty ingredients to add flavor and substance to your cooking. This brings obvious health benefits as well as the fact that herbs are loaded with antioxidants which protect against cancer and heart disease.
Using recipes is a great way of introducing yourself to using fresh herbs in your cooking. The next level of learning how to use herbs comes with fully understanding the different flavors of the herbs you are using. To achieve this, I suggest first tasting each herb by itself, then add it to something bland yet familiar, such as rice or potatoes. Finally, (and here’s where your creativity comes in) experiment by adding the herb whenever you think it will work.
If you’re using herbs from your own garden, it is important for you to know that the best herbs come from plants that are in the leaf making stage, not in the flowering (reproductive) stage. During the flowering stage, leaves become bitter, grassy, woody, or yellowed because more of the plant’s energy is going toward flowering (reproduction). You can delay your plant flowering by harvesting often.