Cooking with herbs: dishes look great and taste fresher

Home gardening seems to be more popular than ever this year, with everyone spending more time in their own spaces, focusing on being more self-sufficient and minimizing trips to the grocery store.

The season usually begins with an abundance of fresh herbs, which are generally very simple to grow even in small spaces.

Though they do well outdoors with plenty of sun, they're perfect for growing in containers and small pots.

A deck covered with herbs — chives, mint, cilantro, dill, rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley and basil all grow well here — can also be inspiring in the kitchen.

Fresh herbs like rosemary, oregano and thyme tend to have more flavour than their dried counterparts. Generally speaking, if a recipe calls for a measurement, you want about twice as much of the fresh version as you would dried.

Pull the leaves off the stems of twiggy herbs (like rosemary and thyme) and chop them, or toss a whole sprig into the pot and extract it later. 

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If you're looking to incorporate more leafy, herby things into your meals, look to cuisines around the world for inspiration — dishes throughout the Middle East utilize fresh herbs by the bunch.

A handful of fresh herbs chopped or torn over salads, roasted or grilled meats and veg, eggs on toast, pulses and soups — just about anything — make them look great, taste fresher and deliver a boost of leafy greens. 

Around the world there are versions of fresh green sauces — salsa verdes — made with handfuls of leafy herbs: chutneys and salsas, chimichurri, pistou, pesto, zhoug. Most are made with leafy herbs like cilantro or coriander, parsley and mint, spiked with chilies, garlic, spices, and with oil and often lemon or vinegar.

All are delicious over eggs, grilled or roasted vegetables or meats, stirred into sauces and salad dressings, drizzled over soup, and will keep in the fridge. Chopped herbs can be blended into salt to flavour it, or into softened butter to make a compound butter to dab on everything.

Herbs like flat-leaf parsley can last for a long time in the fridge, but if you buy a bunch and don't get through it all —particularly stronger herbs like fresh thyme — you can dry them.

Spread out the sprigs on a parchment-lined sheet and place it in your oven on the lowest setting for a few hours, or until they're perfectly dry. Crumble the leaves off their stems, and funnel the dried herbs into a jar or other airtight container to store in a cool, dark place. 

Mustardy warm potato + asparagus salad with jammy eggs

• new or fingerling potatoes, halved if large
• asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
• salt
• eggs (optional)

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup olive or canola oil
• 2-3 tbsp sherry or white wine vinegar
• 1-2 tbsp grainy mustard
• 1 small garlic clove, finely crushed
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper, to taste
• chopped or torn fresh parsley and dill

In a medium saucepan, cover as many potatoes as you'd like to cook with water and bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until just fork-tender. Add the asparagus to the pot for the last minute, so that it turns bright green and tender-crisp. Drain in a colander. 

If you like, return the pot to the stove and bring a couple inches of water to a simmer. Gently drop in as many eggs as you'd like to cook; set the timer for seven minutes, then drain and run under cool water. 

Meanwhile, shake up all the dressing ingredients in a jar, or whisk them together in a small bowl. Drizzle as much as you like over the warm potatoes and asparagus and toss to coat. Peel and halve the eggs and place on top, and scatter with fresh herbs.

Serve warm or at room temperature, or save the eggs, refrigerate the salad and serve it cold, with or without the eggs.  

Smashed salad

A few years ago, I fell in love with the smash salad at Camp Cookhouse and General Store in the tiny town of Elkwater, Alta.

The salad is named for the baby cukes and radishes that are bashed and broken into rough chunks, making them a great size and shape to spear with a fork, with jagged edges that give dressing plenty of places to cling to.

I started making a version with a creamy garlic-jalapeño-cilantro-lime sauce I fell for at around the same time, which is delicious on everything. (Bonus: this also makes good use of the crumby bits in the bottom of a bag of tortilla chips.)

Green sauce:

• ½-1 bunch cilantro (stems too!)
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• juice of a lime (or peel and toss it in whole!)
• 1/3 cup (about) mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup (about) sour cream or plain yogurt
• salt

Salad:

• 2-3 baby cucumbers, broken or cut into chunks
• a handful of radishes, broken or cut into chunks
• ½-1 cup chickpeas, well drained (and smashed if you like)
• 1 avocado, sliced or diced
• ¼-½ cup crumbled feta
• a few leaves of fresh mint, torn or thinly sliced
• a couple handfuls of crushed tortilla chips (good ones)

To make the green sauce, whiz everything in a blender, cilantro stems and all, adjusting the lime juice and salt as needed to suit your taste.

Assemble the salad by layering the cucumbers, radishes, chickpeas, avocado, feta and mint on a platter or individual plates. Drizzle with green sauce (stash extras in the fridge for a week or so, you'll find so many uses for it) and sprinkle with tortilla chips.

Serves 2-4.