Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme Excerpt

From the May/June 2020 Essential Herbal
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
Alicia Allen

Herbs add flavor and nutrition to food and drinks.  

There are a lot of wonderful recipes out there for using herbs in recipes. A quick internet search for whatever herb you have available will give you a multitude of choices. But, sometimes, we are too busy to try new recipes, or maybe it just seems like too much work.

In the following paragraphs are easy ways to incorporate some of the most used and most nutritious herbs into your daily meals. This edition, we will begin with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.  (Funny, I feel like a 70s song.) Next edition, we will cover basil, spearmint, dill and tarragon. So, if you have the opportunity to grow these last four herbs to use in the next edition’s recipes, that will be a bonus.

PARSLEY 

If you have ever added parsley to buttered new potatoes, you know what a flavor kick it is.  But, did you know that with every bite you enjoy, you are improving your health as well?  Roughly 1/3 cup of parsley leaves provides significant Vitamin A and Vitamin C and especially Vitamin K FOR THE ENTIRE DAY!  Parsley is an excellent breath freshener to enjoy after eating a strongly flavored meal.  And, parsley tastes great in dips, salads, and entrees.

TRY TODAY: 

•        •          Add the leaves from a bunch of parsley to veggie salads;

•        •          Add chopped parsley to your ranch dip;

•        •          Boil some potatoes with butter and parsley;

•          •          Add parsley to your guacamole or salsa;

•        •          Chomp parsley after dinner;

•        •          Spruce up potato salad with a bunch of chopped parsley

•        •          Add parsley to your mayo or mustard for your sandwich

SAGE

Although most of us are familiar with sage from adding it to stuffing at Thanksgiving, we may not know how to use it in other ways.  But, it is such a powerhouse of nutrients, we might want to relook it.  Roughly 1/3 cup of chopped sage (or about 25 leaves) provides a healthy dose of Vitamin A and the full RDA of Vitamin K.  Sage is known to improve the ability to recall information (maybe this is why a wise person is called a SAGE?), so drink up and eat up!

TRY TODAY: 

•        •          Make a tea with sage leaves (sweeten with honey). 

•        •          Add sage to veggie salads.

•        •          Sage goes great with pork; add to pork chops as they cook.

•        •          Eat more stuffing (never a bad thing).

•          •          Fried sage leaves (battered or not) are a delicacy

ROSEMARY

Rosemary is for remembrance.  Studies show an increase in memory retention after sniffing rosemary.  So, carry some around and show your smarts, and while you are at it, add it to your favorite foods.  You may find you have increased your dose of certain key nutrients while having a yummy tummy.  Although you can add it to uncooked recipes, rosemary is typically used in cooked foods, and used somewhat sparingly due to its strong smell and taste.

TRY TODAY: 

•        •          Rosemary is good in drinks, in small amounts;

•        •          Add it to your spaghetti sauce;

•        •          Bake/reheat potatoes after tossing them in olive oil and rosemary;

•        •          Bake into cakes or cookies;

•        •          Add to soup or stew for a short time at the end of cooking;

•        •          Press into refrigerator cookie dough; glaze with lemon glaze.

THYME

When you have thyme (get it?), you can do wonders.  Thyme is a very nutritious herb that adds Iron & Vitamin A.  Its subtle flavor can take foods from ok to “oh, wow!”.  Try the flavored varieties.  One of my favorites is lavender thyme, but my go to variety is always variegated lemon thyme.  It looks great in a bed or a pot.   Also, lemon scented herbs, such as lemon thyme, or lemon basil, are great insect repellants.

TRY TODAY:

•        •          Add thyme *to biscuit and cookie mixes;

•        •          Grill chicken with lemon slices and thyme;

•        •          Add it to your ranch dip, or just add it liberally to sour cream or greek yogurt for a treat of it’s own;

•        •          make a glaze with powdered sugar and a little lemon juice and put on cookies, fruit salad or cakes (try a store bought pound cake);

•        •          Cook it with your fish;

•      •          Add to your spaghetti sauce

Pork Chops With Parsley And Rosemary

4 pork chops, boneless or bone in

2 T butter

1 T olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 t lemon juice

2 T parsley, minced, stems removed  

2 T rosemary, minced, stems removed

1 t pepper

½ t salt

Add butter to a small skillet.  Add garlic.  Melt butter, being careful not to let it get too brown.  Add minced herbs, lemon juice, pepper, salt and olive oil.  Mix.  Dredge pork chops in herb mixture and place in casserole dish.  Spoon remaining mixture on the pork chops.  Bake at 350 degrees oven for 35 minutes, or until done.  Do not eat undercooked pork.

FAST FIX:  Broil chops for 8 to 10 minutes, turn and broil for an additional 8 to 10 minutes.  Use tubes of herbs from the produce section, omitting the olive oil.

 

Mini Peppers Stuffed with Thyme Cream Cheese

10 sweet peppers, multicolored

8 oz block of cream cheese

1 – 2 T milk

10 sprigs of thyme

Strip the thyme leaves from the stem.  Chop the leaves and add to the cream cheese.  Add enough milk to make a firm, but spreadable mixture.  Set aside.  Cut the peppers in half, longways.  Remove the seeds, the stem, and the white membranes in the inside of the pepper.  Grill or broil the mini peppers until slightly done, but still retaining their shape.  Remove and cool.  Add the thyme laden cream cheese to the peppers.  20 servings

FAST FIX:  Serve the peppers raw.  Add the thyme to 1 container of whipped cream cheese.  Enjoy!

Rosemary Lemon Salad Dressing / Marinade

¼ c olive oil                             ¼ c lemon juice

1 clove garlic                           ½ t salt

2 sprigs of rosemary, 4 inches each

Strip rosemary leaves from stem.  Mash the rosemary and the garlic together.  Add salt and lemon juice.  Mix.  Slowly add olive oil.  Serve with your favorite vegetable salad.  It also makes an excellent marinade for chicken.

FAST FIX:  Put all ingredients into blender.  Blend.

Sage Biscuits

1 ¾ c all purpose flour            2 t baking powder

½ t baking soda                       ½ t salt

¼ c vegetable shortening        6 T butter, very cold

¾ c buttermilk                         1 T chopped sage

10 to 20 sage leaves, small enough to fit on biscuit

1 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Mix flour and next three ingredients.  Add the chopped sage and mix well.  Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles small peas.  Add buttermilk and mix well.  Knead 10 to 12 times.  Use additional flour on the cutting board.  Roll dough out to ½ to ¾ inch thickness.  Cut with round biscuit cutter or glass about 2 “ diameter.  Do not twist the cutter when pressing into the dough.  Twisting the cutter results in sealing the dough, preventing it from rising.  Place on cookie sheet.  Brush tops with melted butter and add sage leaf or leaves to make a pattern. 

Cook for 12 to 16 minutes, until slightly brown on top.

Fast Fix:  Place melted butter on frozen biscuits.  Add the sage leaves.  Bake in accordance with the biscuit package directions.

TIMELY TIP:  Making biscuits with delicious decorations lets you be creative.  But what is the best way to place the decorative herbs, and even edible flowers, to adhere to the biscuits?  My husband, son and daughter in law were willing guinea...., ummm, participants.  I tried three methods of adhering the fresh sage to the biscuits.  The first was plain water, before and after the sage leaves were placed on the biscuit.  The second was melted butter, again, applied both before and after the sage leaves were placed on the biscuits.  The third method was to brush beaten egg yolk on the biscuit before and after the sage was placed on the biscuit. 

Which method do you think turned out the best?  It was the melted butter!  The egg wash biscuit was the darkest after cooking, but the sage was chewy and could not be bit in two.  The water wash sage just fell off the cooked biscuit.  The lightest cooked biscuit, with the melted butter, produced sage that was slightly crispy and could be bitten in two.

If you want to be fancy, you could blanch the herbs for a few seconds in boiling water, run them under cold water, and then dry them between paper towels.  You can put a heavy pan on the herbs while they are drying to make them flat.  The blanching preserves the color of the fresh herb.

Lemon Thyme Cookies

1 c margarine or butter                  1 ½ c lemon thyme sugar

2 eggs                                                   3 c all purpose flour

2 t cream of tartar                            ½ t salt

½ c chopped fresh or 3 T dried whole lemon thyme leaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream oleo or butter; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Combine flour, cream of tartar and salt.  Add to creamed mixture.  Blend in lemon thyme.  Shape dough into 2 oblong rolls.  Wrap rolls in waxed paper and chill overnight (can be frozen).  Unwrap rolls and slice into ¼ inch slices.  Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Makes 4 to 6 dozen.  [Adapted from Some Like it With Herbs,

FAST FIX:  Add thyme or lemon thyme on top of sliced refrigerator dough.  Glaze with lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar.