How to Cook with Herbs from Your Garden

In this economy, growing your own food and herbs is a smart option. Who wouldn't want to supplement their table with free food? Flavoring that food with herbs from your own garden is both delicious and rewarding. Herbs can be grown in pots just as easily as garden plots.

Basil: Goes will in salads, with cheese and egg dishes, with rice pasta and pizzas, in soups and stews, and with fish, chicken and lamb. Perfect partner to tomato.

Bay Leaves: Enhances any marinade, stock, soup or stew, boiled meats, fish, vegetable and rice dishes, as well as flavoring ice creams and custards.

Chervil: Tastes a little like parsley, but more delicate, and slightly like anise. Chervil is best used at the end of cooking. It is wonderful with all egg dishes, fish and shellfish, meats, salads, sauces and vegetables.

Chives: Have a delicate onion flavor. Ideal for egg dishes, cottage and cream cheeses, sprinkled on soups, potatoes, carrots and salads.

Coriander: is the basis of many curries, spicy sauces, fresh chutneys and salads.

Dill: Has a delicate flavor resembling caraway. It is especially good with fish, cream cheese, potatoes and carrots and as a garnish for casseroles.

Fennel: used to flavor pickles, biscuits and fish, and the stalks of fennel are dried and used as a base to cook on. Fennel is an accompaniment to fish and pork, either as a sauce or to cook with it. Finely chopped, it is used as a garnish to soups, salads and casseroles.

Garlic: is essential in curries and chutneys and will enhance most savory dishes. Works best in Italian recipes. Great heated by itself and spread over toast like butter.

Marjoram: is great for poultry stuffings, cream cheese, salads, omelettes, sauces, vinegars, pizzas, meat loaves and sausages and with poultry, pork and veal.

Mint: Makes a wonderful salad herb. Lamb combines happily with mint, as do mince dishes. Mint can be used with fruit such as oranges, bananas and pineapples. It goes well with carrots, potatoes, peas and beans, lentils, tomatoes and eggplant. In Asia it is used in curries, fresh salads and chutneys.

Add to drinks like tea.

Oregano: is important in Italian and Greek cooking and is excellent with tomatoes, cheese, beans, zucchini, eggplant, fish, beef, mince dishes and pizzas.

Parsley: adds flavor to mashed potatoes, salads, eggs, sandwiches, stuffings, vegetables and sauces, almost all savory dishes.

Rosemary: great with lamb, pork and chicken. It is excellent in soups and stews, with tomatoes and vegetables. It is one of the few herbs that go well with sweet dishes like ice cream, sorbets, cakes, puddings and creams.

Sage: is excellent to use with rich dishes like duck, goose, rabbit, pork or sausages. The Italians love it with veal and calf's liver. It is better fresh than dried.

Tarragon: wonderful in hollandaise, Bearnaise and tartar. It blends wonderfully with chicken and pates, fish, shellfish and salads. The delicate flavor enhances most savory dishes.

Thyme: great in stuffings, stews and soups of meat, fish and vegetables. It is a good roasting herb with lamb, beef, pork, poultry and game.

Tip: Mint and fennel are both aggressive herbs and will overtake your garden, so they should be planted in pots. A small window-sill herb garden can be the best option for small spaces.