I’ve been reaching for fresh cilantro, parsley, and mint more frequently this winter.
Up until a few years ago I really wasn’t crazy for fresh herbs, but now I’ve embraced them. Particularly the leafy greens, and so, especially during the winter months, I’m finding additional ways to use up a bunch from the grocery store.
During the summer I can go out to the yard and pick what I need from the garden; but if I’ve purchased an elastic-bundled handful of parsley at the supermarket, I hate to see it go to waste in the fridge after it’s intened purpose leaves me with half of what I’d bought just laying in the vegetable drawer.
And so, a few sprigs are mixed in with the lettuce greens when I assemble our dinner salads; small handfuls are added to bowls of soup and especially to the pot when I’m making broth; chopped, they’re sprinkled over vegetables (before and after they’re roasted), or stirred into boiled potatotes or steamed peas: the herbs are being used up.
Now I’m using fresh herbs everywhere.
Like, here, topping my fried egg sandwich: I’ve added parsley and cilantro along with my more routine arugula. Plus some briny, spicy liquid from the bottom of a container of kimchi I had in the fridge, drizzled over top for zing. These extra greens really transformed the sandwich from an egg on bread, to a proper sandwich.
At this rate, by the time summer gets here, I’ll need to plant more herbs than usual. But probably not dill; I haven’t embraced it yet.
