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.
