25 November 2012

Life skills - using up fresh herbs

What to do with the rest of the bunch of herbs when you only need a tablespoon? They say to put the bunch of parsley into a jar or glass or whatever of water, but for me, the water goes yellow and the stems get gooey and the rest of the bunch doesn't get used.

Another possibility is to chop it up and freeze it in ice cube trays. This doesn't work well for people who mainly use their freezer as a way of dealing with moths in their woollens!

Fresh parsley pesto seemed worth a try. Recipes called for various amounts of "leaves only" - I used the one that matched the amount my bunch yielded, 1 1/2 cups -
Other ingredients, to be processed in a food processor (or with a whizzy stick) are 1 garlic clove (peeled), 1/3 cup toasted (flaked) almonds, 1/2 cup olive oil (I used less and put some on top of the finished pesto before putting it in the fridge), 1/4 cup (grated) parmesan, salt and pepper.
It was delicious. And virtuous!

3 comments:

Cate Rose said...

Parsley pesto sounds good! Have you made spinach pesto yet? It's the best IMHO. Use walnuts or almonds instead of pine nuts.

irene macwilliam said...

Now I know what to do with all the parsley when I remove the shooting plants next spring. Thanks

Jane Housham said...

Looks fantastic -- that green!