Heidi Swenson has a northern Chinese salad recipe for 90% cilantro, a handful of crisp asparagus, and fried shallots, with a dressing of fried shallot oil, soy and some other ingredients. It is absolutely surprising and amazing.
It's so true that herbs are undervalued in our general society nowadays (or used as useless garnishes), despite the fact that our English colonial fore-bearers came from a tradition of herbal salads. I love this mix for a "salat" from a famous English court cookbook, c1390: parsel, sawge, garlec, chybollus, oynons, lek, borage, myntes, porrettes, fenels and towne cressis rewe rosmarye, purslary (parsley, sage, garlic, chives, onions, leek, borage, mint, scallion, fennel and nasturtium, rue, rosemary, purslane), or this edict from a 19th century American "Cook and Housekeeper's Dictionary:" "The following are the principal herbs used as salads. Basil, balm, borage, burnet, celery, chervil, colewort, coriander, corn-salad, cresses, endive, French fennel, lettuce, mint, mustard, nasturtiums, nettle-tops, parsley, pennyroyal, radishes, rape, sage, sorrel, spinage, tarragon, and water-cresses." I find this too fabulous for words.
Solve your herb problem by growing them year-round in an indoor AeroGarden! It works fabulously and I have herbs all the time, even tarragon. There's the added benefit of a nice light waiting for you when you get up early on cold winter mornings. If you buy it from the company's website they also sell the pre-seeded pods. It is very reliable and cheery.
Delicious! Many of these herbs are REALLY easy to grow at home: in pots, on windowsills, in veg beds. I mean really easy - you don’t need green fingers or a green thumb. And there’s nothing like gathering whatever you need 10 seconds from your door. I keep mine mainly in pots, especially the mint which would stake its claim to the whole garden otherwise. (Oh and also it means they’re ’out of range’ for dogs relieving themselves - just saying 🤣)
Herbs are my favorite thing ever. I wish I could upload a picture for you of the insane ABUNDANCE of herbs at the farmer's market here in Northern Spain. I use them more liberally and generously now as I can regularly get huge bunches of parsley, mint, and cilantro for 1-1.5 Euro each. Parsley is also surprisingly high in Vitamin C and iron. Do you play with carrot fronds? They are a staple in my kitchen - I make chimichurri, harissa sauce, and pesto with them, throw them in my bone broth, snip them in salads..... it's a great way to make a lateral deviation from parsley when you have a bunch on hand.
Emily, one of my favorite simple lunches/ suppers is a soft omelette laid over a bed of fresh chopped herbs lightly dressed in lemon and oil. Any soft leafy herb growing works- today it would be sorrel, chervil, roquette( I treat it like an herb than a salad) and parsley. The omelette just warms the bed of herbs and the fragrance is so satisfying with every bite. Other French favorites are lovage, keeps growing back, and can be switched out for celery, and fresh thyme. Herbaceous regards to you!
LOVED this!! I am so eager for my mint and tarragon to reappear in the garden. Gratefully I can purchase mint from the grocery store but I refuse to buy those expensive little plastic boxes of tarragon. Last fall I finally decided to grow a little forest of my own basil indoors under plant lights because I was sick and tired of spending 3 to $4 for a measly little bunch of basil that almost always wilted within an hour of getting it home. It has been the most delightful and tastiest "house plant" choice I ever made! 💚💚
Okay, I'm sorry but I simply A D O R E you. I've downloaded and will print. In Portland teaching live for the first time since Pandamania. And I have to cook for these people. I am finishing my serialized memoir and my brain is toast, but now I have salads. I cannot wait to make them and say, yeah...I did that thanks to Emily!
(Hello on the herbs...grow them indoors. I do veg but with a deep pot, you can have them right there in your house.
Sarah wanted an indoor herb garden so I got her an AeroGarden for the counter for her birthday, and we've been inundated with dill... she made a great apple-cucumber-dill salad from Adeena Susman's Shabbat cookbook, but I've been using it and other various herbs for your lemon herb dressing all the time. The one that's got honey and no mustard. Also when I buy a bunch of parsley or cilantro that's gonna go bad before I can use it all... these new recipes look lovely. I've got golden raisins so it'll be the bean salad first...
Beautiful recipes—potatoes look great! Sauce verte came to mind when you asked about feature herbs. My fam loves it smothering grilled steak. Ours is simpler though; just parsley (or arugula), vinegar/lemon, olive oil, and lots of garlic. Can’t wait to try the salty umami version!
Heidi Swenson has a northern Chinese salad recipe for 90% cilantro, a handful of crisp asparagus, and fried shallots, with a dressing of fried shallot oil, soy and some other ingredients. It is absolutely surprising and amazing.
It's so true that herbs are undervalued in our general society nowadays (or used as useless garnishes), despite the fact that our English colonial fore-bearers came from a tradition of herbal salads. I love this mix for a "salat" from a famous English court cookbook, c1390: parsel, sawge, garlec, chybollus, oynons, lek, borage, myntes, porrettes, fenels and towne cressis rewe rosmarye, purslary (parsley, sage, garlic, chives, onions, leek, borage, mint, scallion, fennel and nasturtium, rue, rosemary, purslane), or this edict from a 19th century American "Cook and Housekeeper's Dictionary:" "The following are the principal herbs used as salads. Basil, balm, borage, burnet, celery, chervil, colewort, coriander, corn-salad, cresses, endive, French fennel, lettuce, mint, mustard, nasturtiums, nettle-tops, parsley, pennyroyal, radishes, rape, sage, sorrel, spinage, tarragon, and water-cresses." I find this too fabulous for words.
Solve your herb problem by growing them year-round in an indoor AeroGarden! It works fabulously and I have herbs all the time, even tarragon. There's the added benefit of a nice light waiting for you when you get up early on cold winter mornings. If you buy it from the company's website they also sell the pre-seeded pods. It is very reliable and cheery.
Delicious! Many of these herbs are REALLY easy to grow at home: in pots, on windowsills, in veg beds. I mean really easy - you don’t need green fingers or a green thumb. And there’s nothing like gathering whatever you need 10 seconds from your door. I keep mine mainly in pots, especially the mint which would stake its claim to the whole garden otherwise. (Oh and also it means they’re ’out of range’ for dogs relieving themselves - just saying 🤣)
Herbs are my favorite thing ever. I wish I could upload a picture for you of the insane ABUNDANCE of herbs at the farmer's market here in Northern Spain. I use them more liberally and generously now as I can regularly get huge bunches of parsley, mint, and cilantro for 1-1.5 Euro each. Parsley is also surprisingly high in Vitamin C and iron. Do you play with carrot fronds? They are a staple in my kitchen - I make chimichurri, harissa sauce, and pesto with them, throw them in my bone broth, snip them in salads..... it's a great way to make a lateral deviation from parsley when you have a bunch on hand.
Emily, one of my favorite simple lunches/ suppers is a soft omelette laid over a bed of fresh chopped herbs lightly dressed in lemon and oil. Any soft leafy herb growing works- today it would be sorrel, chervil, roquette( I treat it like an herb than a salad) and parsley. The omelette just warms the bed of herbs and the fragrance is so satisfying with every bite. Other French favorites are lovage, keeps growing back, and can be switched out for celery, and fresh thyme. Herbaceous regards to you!
LOVED this!! I am so eager for my mint and tarragon to reappear in the garden. Gratefully I can purchase mint from the grocery store but I refuse to buy those expensive little plastic boxes of tarragon. Last fall I finally decided to grow a little forest of my own basil indoors under plant lights because I was sick and tired of spending 3 to $4 for a measly little bunch of basil that almost always wilted within an hour of getting it home. It has been the most delightful and tastiest "house plant" choice I ever made! 💚💚
Right, the elf picnic !! LMAO
I feel more alive! Every single thing sounds delicious and I would like to crash an elf picnic one of these days and ask “what gives?”
Okay, I'm sorry but I simply A D O R E you. I've downloaded and will print. In Portland teaching live for the first time since Pandamania. And I have to cook for these people. I am finishing my serialized memoir and my brain is toast, but now I have salads. I cannot wait to make them and say, yeah...I did that thanks to Emily!
(Hello on the herbs...grow them indoors. I do veg but with a deep pot, you can have them right there in your house.
(Sorry Amazon haters...don't hate me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088RFG8NT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
But don't use those silly little pots. Get a bigger trough style...https://www.amazon.com/Watering-Planters-Plastic-Rectangle-Drainage/dp/B0BNQFT4B7/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=7%2Bx%2B17%2Bplanter%2Bbox&qid=1701798749&sr=8-7&th=1)
You are speaking my language!
I also recommend the Aerogarden
Just last weekend I noticed that my tarragon is re-emerging in the terracotta planter I forgot about and left outside all winter. O joy!
Sarah wanted an indoor herb garden so I got her an AeroGarden for the counter for her birthday, and we've been inundated with dill... she made a great apple-cucumber-dill salad from Adeena Susman's Shabbat cookbook, but I've been using it and other various herbs for your lemon herb dressing all the time. The one that's got honey and no mustard. Also when I buy a bunch of parsley or cilantro that's gonna go bad before I can use it all... these new recipes look lovely. I've got golden raisins so it'll be the bean salad first...
It has been winter waaay too long! I downloaded all of the recipes because all I want now are these luscious salads and potatoes! Thank you
P.S. I always have a big grin reading your very funny take on things (:
Beautiful recipes—potatoes look great! Sauce verte came to mind when you asked about feature herbs. My fam loves it smothering grilled steak. Ours is simpler though; just parsley (or arugula), vinegar/lemon, olive oil, and lots of garlic. Can’t wait to try the salty umami version!