thoughtful consumption

This past week, I’ve had a lot of fun using the herbs that came in the most recent pre-season delivery.

Herby meal #1: Mediterranean supper snack

Leftover restaurant pita is the best – don’t ever leave any in the basket! Brush it with excessive amounts of olive oil, top with herbs and cheese, and toast for a light, simple treat.

Toasted pita, dried figs and honey, apple, Pinot Grigio

I slow-cooked some sliced garlic in olive oil to give the oil more flavor. Not sure if it worked, but it made me feel special. The cheese was Asiago, and the herbs were mostly thyme along with some winter savory and rosemary (from my very own bush).

I really love this kind of light supper late in the evening!

Herby meal #2: Linguine with garlic, lemon, walnuts, and par-cel

Par-cel is the parsley-looking herb that tastes and smells like celery. I can’t find any pictures of this meal, but it was another light, late supper. Basically, I cooked the par-cel and garlic in a generous amount of olive oil till I couldn’t stand it anymore. Then I added some chopped walnuts until they smelled terrific. From there, I added a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water to the pan (Did I mention the pasta?), drained the pasta, and dumped it in a large bowl. Finally, I tossed the pasta in the olive oil mixture, along with some Parmesan, fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

We’ve also successfully made this dish with parsley and basil. (I bet it would work with cilantro, but I would never try it because Chris is not a cilantro fan.) I can tell you that the fresh lemon juice is essential. It brightens and brings everything together. Maybe if you had a really nice balsamic vinegar, you could try that instead.

(This is not the actual meal, but it’s the same idea using parsley instead of par-cel.)

Herby meal #3: Power ramen

One day this week, I slept poorly and woke up feeling the dread of an oncoming cold. That calls for a serving of ramen made with homemade chicken stock. So I heated up a couple of cups while pulling together the rest of the ingredients:

ramen noodles, two (little) beaten eggs, cilantro, piece of dried chile

I put the beef flavor packet away in the cupboard with the spices for emergencies. (I’m not sure exactly what kind of emergency, but it seemed wrong to throw it out.) This single, if large, serving of soup was also the perfect way to use the cilantro without annoying Chris.

The chile was a bit of last-minute craziness, but it worked out. Last fall, I doubled up on CSA subscriptions and was a member of Small Farms CSA run by Joe Reynolds and Judith Winfrey, now of Gaia Gardens.  I ended up with a lot of peppers, and I’m not good at using peppers because they’re on my “hate list” at Farmers Fresh. (I just put bell peppers on the list, but I never get chiles either.) I gave a bunch of the peppers away and then dried a bunch more in the oven for the heck of it. This was months ago, and they’ve been sitting in these jars ever since.

Wanting some heat for this soup, I pulled out a small piece of pepper, scraped the seeds and pith back into the jar, and threw the flesh in the soup when the noodles were cooking. After a minute or two, I tasted the broth, and it was delicious – a little spicy, a little complex. I went ahead and removed the pepper; I’m not sure if it would have given more heat, but I didn’t want to risk it.

(One day soon, I’m going to separate the seeds from the flesh. Then I’ll using the pieces for flavor the same way and have a bottle my very own local red pepper flakes.)

During the last minute of cooking, I swirled in the two little eggs. They cook fast and keep cooking once the soup’s off the heat, so I don’t cook them long. At the very end, I added the chopped cilantro.

“Let food be your medicine” - Hippocrates

It was so yummy, and the cold never happened. If you’re interested in other ramen soup ideas, check out Gussied-up ramen – especially Jenna’s comment chock-full of great tips.

Herby meal #4: herbed roasted sweet potatoes

Finally, I used the winter savory and what was left of the thyme to season roasted sweet potato chunks. This is the yummiest way to cook sweet potatoes: peel, chunk, toss with herbs and olive oil, and roast at 400 degrees for half an hour or until tender and a little brown.