Herbs
While many of us would prefer to cook with fresh herbs they are not always practical. They tend to be hard to find and then when you bring them home they are great for one meal maybe two but then they wilt and you end up tossing them out. This also makes them very expensive. So dried herbs become an excellent alternative and the taste is, in most cases, every bit as good or better and they aren’t going to go bad on you.
And adding flavorful herbs to the seasoning process makes for healthier recipes as well. You can add herbs to reduce (and in some cases to completely eliminate) salt, and sugar and you can also make low fat or low carb recipes delicious and out of this world with delectable flavor.
If you haven’t used dried herbs in your cooking before there are a few helpful hints you should know about:
- Because the herb’s oils are concentrated during the drying process it takes about half the quantity of dried herbs for any recipe that calls for fresh.
- To further enhance the flavor of dried herb crumble them in your hand before adding them to your dish.
- If you are on a low sodium diet you can reduce your salt intake by substituting strong, flavorful spices and herbs like basil, coarse ground black pepper, curry, cumin and oregano. Experiment with these individually or as a special homemade blend in your salt shaker.
- Add dried herbs in small amounts and one at a time to a bland but familiar dish (i.e. butter, potatoes or sour cream). This will allow you to understand the subtle change in flavor and also allow you to know how much to add to the dish without overpowering it.
Learn to experience the full flavor of the herb. Many folks treat it like they do a fine wine, they open up a new herb and take a whole piece and put it in their mouth and chew slowly, taking in the full flavor and the aroma. It is not necessary to ingest the herb at this point. As with our individual spices we are fully committed to sourcing and adding excellent organic alternatives to our herb category. In some cases when the organic is economical feasible we will replace it completely for the non-organic. We have also found instances where the organic version outsells the non-organic. |
Spices |
Seasonings |
Organics |
Salt-Free |
Chiles |
Spice Sets |
Gourmet Salts |
Recipes
