What Are Herbs and How Can I Use Them?

Parsley is a bright green biennial herb, often used as spice. It is common in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking. In modern cooking, parsley is used for its leaf in much the same way as coriander (which is also known as Chinese parsley or cilantro), although parsley is perceived to have a milder flavor.

In Central and Eastern Europe and in West Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green chopped parsley sprinkled on top. Green parsley is often used as a garnish.

The fresh flavor of the green parsley goes extremely well with potato dishes (french fries, boiled buttered potatoes or mashed potato), with rice dishes (risotto or pilaf), with fish, fried chicken, lamb or goose, steaks, meat or vegetable stews.

The leaves are variously referred to as coriander leaves , Chinese parsley , cilantro (in America, from the Spanish for the plant).

The leaves have a different taste from the seeds, with citrus overtones. Some perceive an unpleasant "soapy" taste or a rank smell and avoid the leaves. The flavours have also been compared to those of the stink bug, and similar chemical groups are involved (aldehydes).

The fresh leaves are an ingredient in many South Asian foods (particularly chutneys), in Chinese dishes and in Mexican dishes, particularly in salsa and guacamole and as a garnish.

Chopped coriander leaves are a garnish on cooked dishes such as dal and curries. As heat diminishes their flavor quickly, coriander leaves are often used raw or added to the dish immediately before serving.

Basil is one of the most versatile fresh herbs in any kitchen. Sweet basil has a bright green leaf with a mild clove-anise aroma. It mellows under heat but stays brilliant when used raw.

The species name is Ocimum basilicum and it belongs to the mint family. You will find it in the produce section at most grocery stores.

Most shops sell it in plastic clamshells with moist paper towels inside. Pick packages where the leaves look perky and uniformly green. Yellow edges or limp stems mean the bunch has been sitting too long.

The stems should snap cleanly when bent. Fresh basil leaves have a delicate structure. They break down fast when exposed to high heat.

Most recipes add it at the very end. Torn or chopped by hand is better than sliced with a blade. A dull knife bruises the edges and turns them black.

Roll the leaves into a tight cylinder and slice thin for a chiffonade cut.

Dried Basil

Dried basil exists. Nobody who knows better actually uses it. The essential oils that give fresh basil its aroma evaporate during drying. What is left tastes like crushed hay with a faint herbal ghost behind it.

If your recipe allows it, skip the jar and use fresh leaves. A small handful of fresh is always better than a big spoonful of dried.

Dried basil works in a pinch for long-simmered sauces where it will cook for hours. It has no place in a fresh caprese salad or a quick pasta topping.

Laurie's Words on Herbs - All about Oregano

Oregano is a common herb used in Greek and Italian cooking among other regions.

Oregano is high in antioxidant activity, due to a high content of phenolic acids and flavonoids. Additionally, oregano has demonstrated antimicrobial activity against food-borne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. Both of these characteristics may be useful in both health and food preservation.

The dish most commonly associated with oregano is pizza.

Variations have probably been eaten in Southern Italy for centuries.

In the US returning World War II soliders brought back a taste for what they called "the pizza herb".

Thyme is a good source of iron and is widely used in cooking.

Thyme is often used to flavour meats, soups and stews. It has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with lamb, tomatoes and eggs.

Thyme, while flavourful, does not overpower and blends well with other herbs and spices.

Thyme is sold both fresh and dried. The fresh form is more flavourful but also less convenient; storage life is rarely more than a week. While summer-seasonal, fresh thyme is often available year-round.

Fresh thyme is commonly sold in bunches of sprigs. A sprig is a single stem snipped from the plant. It is composed of a woody stem with paired leaf or flower clusters ("leaves") spaced ½ to 1" apart. A recipe may measure thyme by the bunch (or fraction thereof), or by the sprig, or by the tablespoon or teaspoon. If the recipe does not specify fresh or dried, assume that it means fresh.

Depending on how it is used in a dish, the whole sprig may be used , or the leaves removed and the stems discarded. Usually when a recipe specifies 'bunch' or 'sprig' it means the whole form; when it specifies spoons it means the leaves. It is perfectly acceptable to substitute dried for whole thyme.

Leaves may be removed from stems either by scraping with the back of a knife, or by pulling through the fingers or tines of a fork. Leaves are often chopped.

Thyme retains its flavour on drying better than many other herbs. As usual with dried herbs less of it is required when substituted in a recipe.

These aromatic leaves come from the bay laurel tree and have been used for centuries in cooking and traditional medicine.

Dill weed is the soft, feathery green frond of the dill plant, the herb that defines pickles, gravlax, and a cool cucumber salad. The name "dill weed" simply separates the leaf from dill seed, the flatter spice harvested from the same plant.

The leaf tastes fresh and grassy with a clean, slightly anise-like lift. It pairs almost reflexively with fish, cucumber, potato, and anything sour and creamy, which is why it anchors so much Northern and Eastern European cooking.

Rosemary is a woody Mediterranean herb with stiff, needle-like leaves and a strong piney, almost resinous aroma. It is one of the sturdiest herbs in the kitchen, which means it can take real heat and long cooking without fading.

The flavor is bold and slightly bitter, with notes of pine, pepper, and lemon. A small amount carries a whole roast, so rosemary is a back-off-a-little herb, not a pile-it-on one.

That toughness is why it works the way it does. Unlike soft herbs that wilt the moment they hit heat, rosemary holds its flavor through a long roast or bake, so it goes in early rather than at the end.

The leaf, fresh or dried, is the culinary source of mint. Fresh mint is usually preferred over dried mint when storage of the mint is not a problem. The leaves have a pleasant warm, fresh, aromatic, sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste.

Mint leaves are used in teas, beverages, jellies, syrups, candies, and ice creams. In Middle Eastern cuisine, mint is used on lamb dishes, while in British cuisine and American cuisine, mint sauce andmint jelly are used, respectively.

Mint is a necessary ingredient in ** Touareg tea**, a popular tea in northern African and Arab countries.

Alcoholic drinks sometimes feature mint for flavor or garnish, such as the Mint Julep and the Mojito. Crème de menthe is a mint-flavorer liqueur used in drinks such as the grasshopper.

**Mint essential oil and menthol are extensively used as flavorings in breath fresheners, drinks, antiseptic mouth rinses, toothpaste, chewing gum, desserts, and candies.

Sage is a pungent, earthy herb with a warm, faintly piney flavor and soft gray-green leaves. It is one of the strongest of the soft herbs, so a little goes a long way.

This is the herb of cool-weather cooking, the one behind Thanksgiving stuffing and pork roasts. Its big resinous flavor stands up to rich, fatty food the way most leafy herbs cannot.

Marjoram is a somewhat cold-sensitive perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavours. In some middle-eastern countries, Marjoram is synonymous with Oregano, and there the names Sweet Marjoram and Knotted Marjoram are used to distinguish it from other plants of the genus Origanum.

The name marjoram does not directly derive from the Latin word maior (major). Marjoram is indigenous to the Mediterranean area and was known to the Greeks and Romans as a symbol of happiness.

Marjoram is cultivated for its aromatic leaves , either green or dry, for culinary purposes; the tops are cut as the plants begin to flower and are dried slowly in the shade. It is often used in herb combinations such as Herbes de Provence and Za'atar.

The flowering leaves and tops of Marjoram are steam distilled to produce an essential oil that is yellowish in color (darkening to brown as it ages). It has many chemical components, some of which are borneol, camphor and pinene.

Although considered cold-sensitive, marjoram can sometimes prove hardy even in zone 5.

Tarragon is a slender green herb with a distinct anise or licorice perfume, the defining flavor of French cooking's bearnaise sauce and a classic match for chicken. The leaves are narrow and pointed, and a little goes a long way.

There are two main types, and the difference matters. French tarragon has the rich, sweet anise flavor cooks want. Russian tarragon is hardier but coarse and nearly flavorless.

So buy a French tarragon plant, not seed, because true French tarragon does not grow true from seed.

It is one of the four French fines herbes, and it leans more aromatic and assertive than the chervil, parsley, and chives it sits beside.

Savory is an aromatic herb in the mint family with a peppery, thyme-like flavor and a hint of marjoram. If you have never cooked with it on its own, picture thyme with more bite and a faint resinous edge.

There are two kinds you will run into. Summer savory is the milder, sweeter annual, while winter savory is a hardier perennial with a sharper, more pungent, almost pine-like punch. Summer savory is the one most recipes mean and the one most cooks prefer.

Its nickname, the bean herb, says a lot. Across Europe savory is the traditional partner for beans and lentils, and it is a core herb in herbes de Provence.

Mixed herbs is the everyday jar of dried savory herbs that lives in nearly every kitchen. It is the workhorse you shake over a roast or stir into a sauce without thinking too hard about it. One jar, a dozen uses.

The classic blend leans on Mediterranean leaves: oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, parsley, and sometimes rosemary or sage. The exact mix depends on the brand and the style.

An Italian-style blend pushes oregano and basil, while an herbes de Provence style brings in lavender and fennel for a more floral, southern-French character.

It is a savory blend, not a sweet one, so it belongs in dinner, not dessert.

Chervil is a delicate, lacy green herb that tastes like parsley crossed with a whisper of anise. It belongs to the carrot family and grows feathery fronds that look a lot like flat-leaf parsley shrunk down and softened.

In the kitchen its big claim to fame is being one of the classic fines herbes of French cooking. That quartet of parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil lives on eggs and cream sauces, and chervil is the quiet anise note tying it together.

The catch is that chervil is fragile. Its flavor is faint and it fades fast with heat, so almost everything about cooking with it comes down to timing.

Fenugreek is a Mediterranean and West Asian plant in the pea family, grown for both its seeds and its leaves. The seeds are the part most cooks mean by fenugreek: small, hard, amber-brown, and squared off at the ends like tiny pebbles.

Those seeds have a curious double character. Raw, they are bitter. Toasted, they turn warm and nutty with an unmistakable scent of maple syrup and burnt sugar.

That maple note is no accident. Fenugreek and artificial maple flavoring share the same aroma compound, sotolon.

Fenugreek is the quiet backbone of much Indian, Sri Lankan, and North African cooking. It hides inside curry powders and spice blends, lending the deep, savory undertone you cannot quite name.

Fenugreek is an aromatic Mediterranean plant coming from the Middle-East.

It belongs to the pea family and produces slender, long, curved pods that contain flattened brownish coloured seeds.

Fenugreek seeds have a slightly bitter taste that are roasted and ground and used for flavouring curries. The distinct flavour of Fenugreek is readily recognized in many curry powders and pastes.

The seeds are stone-like and very hard and requires use of a special grinder or heavy pestle and mortar.

Fenugreek leaves have a very strong aroma and in India, Turkey and various Arab countries are used either fresh or dried as a culinary vegetable or herb.

Italian herbs, sold as Italian seasoning, is a dried blend built around oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, and marjoram. Some jars add sage or savory, but those five carry the flavor: the warm, slightly peppery, faintly piney note you taste in pizza sauce and red-sauce pasta.

It is a shortcut, and a good one. Instead of measuring five jars, you reach for one spoonful that already balances them. That convenience is why it shows up across pasta, pizza, soups, marinades, and herby breads.

The catch is that it is dried, so it behaves differently from a handful of fresh basil. Used right, it carries a whole pot of sauce.

Sorrel is a leafy green herb with a sharp, lemony, almost sour tang that sets it apart from every other green on the produce shelf. The arrow-shaped leaves look a lot like young spinach, but one bite tells you they're something else entirely.

That tartness comes from oxalic acid, the same compound in rhubarb, and it's the whole reason cooks reach for the plant. Sorrel brings built-in acidity, so it can do the job lemon usually does, but as a leaf rather than a squeeze of juice.

Two kinds turn up in kitchens. Common garden or broadleaf sorrel has large, mild leaves, while French sorrel is smaller, more shield-shaped, and the finer-flavored of the two. This is the cooking green and has nothing to do with the red hibiscus drink also called sorrel in the Caribbean.

Lovage is a tall leafy herb that tastes like celery turned up loud, with a savory, almost yeasty depth behind it. The leaves look a bit like flat-leaf parsley, but one bite makes the celery character obvious right away.

It is an old European garden herb that has fallen out of fashion. That is a shame, because a single handful can carry the whole celery note in a pot of soup, and both the leaves and the hollow stems are edible.

Think of lovage as a concentrate. Where a recipe calls for a stalk or two of celery, a few lovage leaves do the same job and then some.

Fine herbs, from the French fines herbes, is the classic delicate herb blend of French cooking: parsley, chives, chervil, and tarragon in roughly equal parts. The point is subtlety, a fresh green lift rather than a bold, dominant flavor.

It is a workhorse of egg and fish cookery, the seasoning behind a proper French omelet and a hundred light cream sauces. Tarragon gives a faint anise note, chervil a soft parsley-like sweetness, chives a whisper of onion, and parsley ties it together.

Traditionally fines herbes are fresh and finely chopped. Dried blends sold under the name are common and convenient too.

The rule is the same either way: go gently and add them late.

Epazote is a pungent Mexican herb with a flavor that takes some getting used to. People describe it as a mix of oregano, mint, citrus, and something resinous, almost like petroleum or creosote, and it smells far stronger than it tastes once cooked.

It grows wild across Mexico and is a backbone of the country's home cooking, most famously in a pot of black beans. The jagged, pointed leaves are used both fresh and dried.

This is a love-it-or-hate-it herb raw. But cooking tames it into a savory, herby depth that is hard to name and easy to miss once you know it.

Lemon thyme is a thyme variety that carries a genuine lemon scent alongside the usual earthy, woody thyme flavor. The citrus comes from natural oils in the leaf, not from anything added, so it tastes like thyme and lemon at once rather than one flavor pretending to be the other.

That double note makes it a favorite for fish and chicken, where regular thyme can feel a little heavy and a hit of lemon would help. It works anywhere you want thyme plus a clean citrus lift without reaching for a lemon.

For general thyme handling, see thyme. This page is about the lemon difference.

For more information on marjoram refer to All about marjoram

Sorrel is a leafy green herb known for one thing: a sharp, lemony tartness that comes from the oxalic acid in its leaves. The arrow-shaped leaves look like young spinach but taste bright and sour, almost like green apple peel.

You use it as both a herb and a vegetable. A few raw leaves wake up a salad, while a big handful cooks down into a tart green puree that becomes a sauce in its own right.

That sourness is the whole appeal. Sorrel brings the lemon to a dish without the watery dilution of actual lemon juice.

Herbes de Provence is a dried herb blend named for the south of France, built around the herbs that grow wild on its hillsides. A typical mix leans on thyme, rosemary, savory, marjoram, and oregano, with some blends adding a little lavender or fennel.

The flavor is woodsy and savory with a slight floral edge from the lavender, if your blend includes it. North American versions almost always do, while many traditional French ones leave it out.

It is a workhorse for roasted meats and vegetables, and for anything off the grill.

Spearmint is the everyday cooking mint, the soft, sweet, grassy one most people picture when they hear the word mint. It has very little menthol compared to peppermint, so instead of a cold blast you get a gentle, herbal freshness that plays well with food.

That mildness is why spearmint is the leaf in your mojito and your tabbouleh. It folds into savory dishes without taking over, and it stays bright and green when chopped fresh.

For general mint prep and storage, see mint leaves. Here the focus is on what makes spearmint the workhorse.

A tarragon sprig is a whole stem of fresh tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), the slender herb with smooth, pointed dark-green leaves and a flavor of anise crossed with a faint pepper.

When a recipe calls for sprigs rather than chopped leaves, it usually wants the whole stem to infuse a dish and then come out.

French cooks treat tarragon as one of the four classic fines herbes, alongside parsley, chervil, and chives, and it is the defining note in bearnaise. Its licorice-like aroma is strong and a little goes a long way.

Buy French tarragon for cooking. The Russian type is hardier in the garden but almost flavorless, so a sprig of it adds nothing.

Fenugreek leaves are the tender green leaves of the fenugreek plant, the same plant that gives the well-known seeds. In Indian cooking they go by methi, and they are treated as both a vegetable and a herb depending on how they are cut and cooked.

The leaves taste like the seeds' gentler cousin. There is a faint bitterness, but it is softer and more grassy, somewhere between celery, spinach, and watercress, with none of the maple-toast intensity of the toasted seed.

For everything about the seeds, including toasting and grinding, see fenugreek. This page is about the greens.

Peppermint is the sharp, cold-finishing mint, the one that tastes like a candy cane rather than a garden herb. It carries a high dose of menthol, which is what makes it read as cooling on the tongue and gives it that clean, almost icy bite.

That intensity is the whole point. Peppermint runs stronger and more aggressive than everyday mint, so it does its best work in candy, chocolate, after-dinner tea, and extract, where the flavor has to cut through sugar and cream.

For general mint handling and milder savory uses, see mint leaves. This page is about where peppermint earns its place.

Lemon basil is sweet basil crossed with a bright citrus note, a variety whose leaves carry the lemony compound citral on top of the usual basil perfume. The result smells like basil that walked past a lemon grove.

It is a staple in Southeast Asian cooking, especially Thai and Lao dishes, where its lemon edge stands up to fish sauce and coconut milk. Western cooks reach for it with fish, chicken, and summer desserts.

For general basil handling, see basil. This page covers what the lemon version does differently.