Helping you prepare healthy food in a hurry!
Alice Henneman, MS, RD

The Magic of Fresh Herbs

"The secret to transforming easy dishes into extraordinary meals? Fresh herbs."

(From a review by the publisher of the International Association of Culinary Professionals 2006 award-winning cookbook, The Herbal Kitchen.)

Here are some tips from the author, chef Jerry Traunfeld, for enjoying herbs in YOUR kitchen:

• You only need to remove twiggy, wiry or woody parts of herbs. It's OK to chop up soft stems.
  
  
• Avoid over-chopping herbs. A "chopped" herb, according to Traunfeld, would measure between 1/8- and 1/4-inch across.
  
  
• Use stiff rosemary branches as skewers. Remove the leaves at the lower portion and cut the lower tip at an angle to aid piercing the food.
  
  
• Toss cooked pasta with a couple of tablespoons of chopped flat-leaf parsley.
  
  
• If you're planting just one type of mint, consider spearmint. It complements both sweet and savory flavors.
  
  
• Try sprinkling cooked or roasted cauliflower with coarsely chopped dill.
  
  
• If you only have room for planting one type of thyme, Traunfeld suggests English thyme. Lemon thyme works well with spring vegetables and seafood.
  
  
• Use a very sharp knife when cutting basil to avoid bruising it. Stir fresh basil in at the end when adding it to a cooked dish.
  
  
• Unless a recipe specifies otherwise, it means sweet basil when it calls for basil.

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