Things to do with Herbs

[rachelmanija]

I obtained a bunch of bunches of fresh herbs to make herb bread. However, I have lots of herbs left over and would like to use them before they go bad.

(Or should I just freeze them or dry them? Or compose a song about them?)

Herbs: Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme.

Other ingredients I have and could use: All-purpose flour, bread flour, beets (golden), blueberries, cod, eggs from parents' chickens, kale, lamb chops, lentils (brown), oranges (mandarin and navel), peas (English), rice, squid steak, steak, wheat (kamut). Also regular staples like olive oil, olives, soy sauce, etc.

Ingredients I hate, do not suggest a recipe that requires them: bananas, cilantro, eggplant, big chunks of raw tomato.

Comments

[dragonlady7]

Oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme will dry well; parsley and mint will dry ok but i never find they taste like much dried.
I have used mint to make syrup, which keeps in the fridge and is great in mojitos.

[larryhammer]

I was coming in here to say almost exactly this (except I was going to mention adding the mint to honeydew, rather than mojitos) so I'll just say:

+1

[redbird]

This is simple enough that you may already know it, but: rub olive oil on the lamb chops, then spread rosemary on both sides of the chop. Grill or saute the seasoned chops. (Yes, much of the rosemary falls off from the bottom side of the chop.)

[ambyr]

If you have a pitcher, mint left sitting in water in your fridge for a day makes the water taste nice. (At least, it does if you like the taste of mint, which I assume you do since you bought it.)

Parsley I would throw into scrambled eggs or an omelet, probably.

[lemonsharks]

Stick the stem end in the water and the mint will grow its own army to rise up against you and consume all your lands and all that lies upon them AKA sprout rootlets suitable for planting.

[jesuswasbatman]

Well, lamb is traditionally combined with both mint and rosemary.

[conuly]

You can make a green shakshouka using kale, mint (and optional oregano and parsley), garlic, and scallions. (And/or dill if you have it.) Chop the greens finely, mix them all up with the minced garlic, a little olive oil, salt, and ground black pepper, toss in a baking pan. Make whatever number of indents makes sense, crack eggs into them, sprinkle feta on top of the greens but not the eggs. Bake at 350 until the eggs have set, maybe 20 minutes.

As for the rosemary and thyme, try brining your lamb chops in some buttermilk with rosemary and thyme and more garlic (also salt, black pepper) before you roast them in the usual way. Reserve some of both herb to rub the chops all over with before roasting.

[summerstorm]

I enjoy that you did not suggest mint for the lamb. I know it's a thing, but why. (Love lamb, hate mint.)

[conuly]

Well, if you make the shakshouka I recommended above, use dill instead of the mint.

[laurashapiro]

If you have a blender or food processor, or a sharp knife, chop a big handful of mint and parsley with a garlic clove and add salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and (if you have any on hand), some roasted salted pistachios. The resulting salsa verde is fantastic on grilled or roasted meats of all kinds. I've also enjoyed it on spring pastas and risottos with peas and asparagus. Keeps in the fridge for 5 days or so.

[cadenzamuse]

I would just freeze them--freeze in ice cubes with a little water or olive oil, and then put in a plastic bag so they don't freezer burn sitting in the ice cube tray (ask me how I know!). At least in this house, frozen herbs tend to taste more like fresh herbs and thus are Vastly Superior to dried--YMMV.

[rosefox]

Was going to suggest this.

[isis]

Freezing in oil is the way to go! I learned this from Serious Eats and really, it makes a huge difference.

I put my chopped herbs and olive oil into a baggie and make it fairly flat, rather than ice cube tray squares. That way it's easy to break off a bit to use if you don't want to use all at once.

[minoanmiss]

Seconded, especially the baggie trick.

[summerstorm]

Lamb with parsley and thyme and maybe potatoes with rosemary would be delicious. You could fry rice (or potatoes) in the leftover oil and I would die for it.

(I'm super into thyme.)

[sophia_sol]

I like making a lentil soup involving rosemary and parsley. It is....more of a series of suggestions than a specific recipe but let's see if I can write it down for you.

I generally start by frying up some alliums (onions and garlic) which I would consider staples but you don't list one way or another so I'm not sure if you have them on hand. It would probably work without though. Or you can toss some onion powder or something in the soup if you have that.

Then add some chopped other veg to the pot (I usually use carrot but have also successfully used bell pepper or tomato or squash, I bet it would be good with the golden beets) and water with bouillon powder/paste/cube. (If you don't have bouillon you can skip it and add a bit of soy sauce for the umami instead.) Add the lentils and as much rosemary as is to your taste.

If you want potato in the soup you can grate some and add that at this point as well. Or if you want noodles in the soup you can add that when the lentils look closeish to being done. Or if you don't want an additional starch you can skip this paragraph.

Cook the soup till the lentils are tender, then add parsley and a splash of lemon juice.

Also good with crumbled feta added in at the end if one happens to have it, though I rarely do.

[movingfinger]

A fruit salad with blueberries, mint, mandarin segments will be very nice. Can also mix the fruit and mint into rice. Blueberry-mint sorbet or ice cream, delicious.

Cod with herbed butter is good: mix soft butter, parsley, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon zest if you have it; spread over cod, broil. Serve with peas and new potatoes if you have them.

[magistrate]

I always enjoy making this sauce, or variations on it. I find that the herbs you use can be fairly flexible, as long as they all generally meld together.

Edit: And, of course, compound butter of any stripe!

[adrian_turtle]

If you want to make pesto out of oregano or thyme, you should dilute them with parsley. 0.5 cup oregano + 1.5 cups parsley + 0.5 cup olive oil + 4 cloves garlic + 0.25 cup parmesan + 2 tbsp pine nuts. (Cookbook recommends adding 2 tbsp port, but I've never used it.)
In addition to the obvious pasta application, this is lovely on fish or in omelets. And I find pesto in the freezer of more value to me than plain frozen herbs.

[via_ostiense]

You can dry all of those except mint and parsley. For the mint, how about making mint tea? Hot water + fresh mint, very refreshing. You can also add sugar, let cool, and add lemon juice for mint lemonade.

[starlady]

I just used up my extra fresh mint by making iced mint tea--I used green as a base, but it would probably also work with a neutral black.

[isis]

If you have a food processor, parsley and capers and lemon juice (with salt and pepper, and the real recipe uses garlic but I can't eat that) makes a good grilling sauce for fish or chicken. If you don't have capers, I bet olives would make a nice substitution. Maybe add a little thyme.

Roasted beets are delightful with sage and/or rosemary. I also love sage and thyme on steak.

[ellen_fremedon]

Tabouli is a good way to use parsley, and would also be good with the mint, thyme, and oregano tossed in.

Fried sage leaves are a great garnish for lentil soup--heat some oil in your smallest pot and quickly shallow-fry them until they roll up into crispy cigars.

When I've got really huge bunches of herbs, there's an Elizabethan herb tart I like to make: blind-bake a single pie crust (frozen is fine). Saute some aliums (any kind--shallots are especially nice) with a little ginger and, optionally, a handful of raisins, currants, or dried cherries or cranberries. Add about 1 1/2 pounds of mixed fresh herbs and greens--salad greens, cooking greens, whatever you've got--and cook just to wilt. Pour off any excess liquid and stir in about a cup of soft cheese (chevre is nice, or a mild feta, or quark) and one to three eggs, depending on how solid you want the result to be. Pour into the pie crust and bake until set.

[naomikritzer]

I was going to suggest tabbouleh but with kamut instead of bulgar, then use both parsley and mint. Most recipe include cucumber and tomato, but instead you could put in cubes of golden beet, either fresh or roasted, and I bet it would be delicious.

[lemonsharks]

Salad with orange, blueberry, (massaged) kale, olives + mint and parsley as greens

[minoanmiss]

The only suggestion I have that [I think] hasn't been suggested by someone else is a variant on tabbouleh with mint as well as parsley and chopped orange and lemon segments instead of the chopped tomato. All else (the scallions, lemon juice, olive oil, etc) are the same. I often use hemp seeds in this instead of bulgur, but I'm weird.

[chouette]

I'm obsessed with sauteing English peas with mint and butter-- super super simple, wonderfully summery.
And with all those herbs, you can make a very herby French omelette!
You can also tie up the hardier stems for a bouquet garni and toss it into the next pot of stew you make.
All else fails, save the remains for stock!

[muccamukk]

I was going to suggest a very herby quiche with the kale as well.

[rydra_wong]

My top two suggestions have already been made (lamb and rosemary, peas and mint).

Personally, in your place (and if I could eat citrus), I'd probably embark on a dubious experiment to see if the oranges might play well with the rosemary or maybe the thyme (or both). Maybe cooked in some way? Maybe with meat?

I have no idea of whether it'd work or not.

[tibicina]

Oranges and thyme work well together in marinades, salads, and sorbets. (Though do be careful to not make the sorbet tooo thyme-y or to use too much of the orange rind as it can go bitter.)

[tibicina]

If you have enough mint and parsley, that combines well with wheat for a grain salad (ala tabouli). Both mint and thyme go well with English peas. Any of those herbs go well in lamb marinades (olive oil, soy sauce, garlic lots of any of those herbs and maybe a dash of sherry or other vinegar or lemon juice). Most of those will also work well in a lentil salad (Lentils cooked until they still have a little chew, mix with a heavily herbed vinaigrette, preferably with fresh herbs - all the ones you list will work, though I might pick either the rosemary OR the mint, not both - shallots, onions, or green onions make a good addition, as do slice hard boiled eggs or sliced boiled potatoes, you can also add celery or diced cucumbers or anything else salad-y you like). Thyme goes well with beets.

[vass]

The only suggestion I can think of that hasn't been mentioned already: herb scrolls.

This recipe is from Kerry Greenwood's detective novel Earthly Delights (from her series about a baker detective, with recipes in the back of each book) and I haven't tried it myself but immediately thought of it when I saw your post:
(all measurements in Australian standard, but I honestly doubt it matters)

12g sachet of dried yeast
500g of plain white flour
1tbsp sugar
about 300mL water (blood heat)
1tsp salt
1c chopped fresh herbs

Mix everything except the herbs together for awhile. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, use it until the dough has combined and starts to pull away from the sides. If you are using your hands, keep mixing until it does that. Flour is chancy. If it's too dry, add more blood-heat water. If it's too wet, add more flour. Flub it onto a floured board and knead until it feels elastic (this is one of those things you have to learn by doing, like sex and swimming.) Then pat it out into a flattish rectangle like an unrolled Swiss roll. Cover it with a damp cloth and leave it to rise (stacking teh whole thing in a clean plastic bag and putting it into a warm bed works).
Preheat the oven to 180'C. When the dough is all swollen, spread your herbs and a pinch of pepper on the up side, roll it up, and glue the seam together with water. Lay it on the bench and cut it into slices. Cook for about 10 minutes. Tastes gorgeous even if it's not exactly round or is a bit singed at the edges.

[zdenka]

If you make a simple syrup with the rosemary or the mint, and then mix a bit of it into seltzer or club soda, you'll have rosemary or mint soda! I find it's very refreshing in the summer. The syrup can also be good as an addition to desserts.

[carbonel]

If you have a lot of mint, mint chutney is a wondrous thing that goes with just about anything savory.

I also second all the recommendations for tabbouleh, since it requires both parsley and mint. (Once upon a time, I lived in a rented house that had a much-neglected garden with parsley and mint growing in it. I harvested it all and made a large batch of tabbouleh. I had one serving, and it was awesome. The next day, I went to have some more, and the bowl was missing from the refrigerator. I found it, washed, next to the sink. My housemate confessed that she'd meant to have just a taste, and then had another, and another -- and ended up eating it all. Because I am overly socialized, I didn't kill her. Or even yell at her. But I remember.)

[romsfuulynn]

I use parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme, as in the song, in about equal parts as a rub for chicken or pork. About 2 tsp or 1 T each) in olive oil, along with garlic and black pepper. Or in flour for frying, again with garlic and pepper. I also use it in bread stuffing.

I may use somewhat more sage, but my mother was a fan of sage. It's also nice if you are making chicken stock.

[toastykitten]

You could make: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/iranian-herb-fritter-recipe - Iranian herb fritters; if you get cucumbers, Lebanese cucumber yogurt salad https://thelemonbowl.com/cucumber-laban-lebanese-yogurt-sauce, frozen mint lemonade: https://cookieandkate.com/frozen-mint-lemonade-recipe/, etc.

[toastykitten]

Also! Samin Nosrat just posted her 10 essential Persian recipes for NYT, which includes a bunch of your ingredients: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/dining/persian-food-recipes-samin-nosrat.html