conscious eating
Vinegars are one of Bellebuono’s
go-to methods to incorporate herbs into a diet, infusing fresh or dried herbs into red wine or apple cider vinegar for salad dressings and other uses. “Vinegar is great at extracting minerals from herbs and making them more bioavailable,” she says. Drying herbs does not diminish
their medicinal properties, but rather concentrates their essence, as it removes excess water, according to Bellebuono. “Dried and powdered herbs are a great way to preserve the garden harvest and add herbs into everyday dishes. You can throw a teaspoon of turmeric, a wonder- ful anti-inflammatory herb, in spaghetti sauce or oatmeal, and you won’t even notice it,” she says.
SPICE UP HEALTH H
Using Herbs for Flavor and Medicine by April Thompson
erbs add lush flavor to all kinds of dishes, and they are culinary friends that bring the benefits of helping to restore and maintain health. “Food is medicine, and herbs bring out the medicinal properties of food,” says Kami McBride, of
Sebastopol, California, author of Te Herbal Kitchen: Bring Lasting Health to You and Your Family with 50 Easy-to-Find Common Herbs and Over 250 Recipes. “Te spice rack is a relic from another time when we knew how to use herbs and spices to optimize health and to digest our food.” To get a medicinal dose of an herb, consider making teas, vinegar extracts or pestos,
says Brittany Wood Nickerson, the Conway, Massachusetts, author of Te Herbalist’s Kitchen: Delicious, Nourishing Food for Lifelong Health and Well-Being. “Parsley, for example, is a nutrient- and vitamin-rich herb. If you garnish with parsley, you won’t get a significant amount of vitamin C, as you would if you make a pesto from it.” Salads can also pack a healthy dose of herbs into a meal, says Martha’s Vineyard
resident Holly Bellebuono, an herbalist and author of Te Healing Kitchen: Cooking with Nourishing Herbs for Health, Wellness, and Vitality. “So many herbs, including violets, mints and red clover, can just be tossed fresh into a salad, offering both fiber and minerals.”
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Best Herbal Buddies While Mediterranean herbs like oregano and basil are oſten at the front of the spice rack, Nickerson also suggests lesser-used herbs such as sour sumac, anise-accented tarragon and versatile, yet oſten dis- carded orange peels, which can be added to soups along with fennel seed and bay leaves for a complex flavor. Tyme is another of Nickerson’s favorites, a hearty herb for fall dishes that’s also a powerful antifungal and aids with digestion, lung health and detoxification. While some may think of parsley
as a garnish, “It offers incredible fresh- ness and livens up almost anything,” says Nickerson. “I use it as a vegetable and make a salad of its leaves or add hand- fuls of it into a quiche. Parsley is loaded with vitamins and minerals, and has de- toxification properties.” Adding it near the end of cooking maintains its vibrant flavor and color, she notes. McBride loves versatile herbs like
mint and coriander that can be used in sweet and savory dishes with antimicrobial properties that help fight colds and flu. She also keeps salt shakers on the table filled with spices like cardamom, an antibacte- rial, anti-spasmotic and expectorant, to sprinkle onto beverages and dishes. Bel- lebuono also recommends infusing honey with herbs such as sage or oregano that support the immune system.
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