Windowsill Herbs - 10 Delicious Recipes To Make (2024)

So you’ve grown your herbs from seeds, and nurtured them as they grew. That, or you bought a few healthy looking plants in the local supermarket. Either way, you now have an indoor herb garden greeting you every day as you make your morning coffee. They look so pretty and green. They make you feel happy, you could indeed be green-fingered. Sustainable lifestyle here you come, after all you’re growing your own food right! Yes you are but now you need to use it.

Your plants won’t stay fresh and green if you don’t trim back those leaves to let new ones grow. Of course you can snip a little here and there just to help them flourish, but they’re not therejustto look pretty (well they shouldn’t be). They are there to be put to their best use – to flavour your food and encourage healthier living by doing so.

To help inspire you to use your windowsill herbs. Here are 10 extremely easy ways to use your fresh Basil, Mint, Parsley, Rosemary & Thyme (two recipes for each herb).

Basil

Basil is high on the list of my favourite smelling herbs. I just adore its aroma. It grows best indoors so is perfect for your windowsill garden. It’s packed full of vitamins including Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin C , Vitamin K and Potassium. It goes really well with Rosemary and Thyme in meat dishes, but equally as tasty in vegetarian dishes too. Try it with fish, eggs or in a soup.

Super Simple Tasty Tomato & Basil Oven Cooked Rice

This recipe is such a simple dish that can be cooked for all the family in under an hour. Make it vegetarian by leaving out the chicken and by using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. My recommendation is to add the ‘optional’ parmesan ingredient in my recipe. You can read and follow my recipe here –

Basil Pesto

What isn’t pesto great in/on? In a sandwich, on pizza, as a pasta dish or even added to soup. Now you may need to let your plant flourish before you try making pesto at home because according to Jamie Oliver’s Pesto Recipe, you will need three good handfuls. Jamie’s recipe is simple and gives great results. Yes you can buy a jar of the stuff in the supermarket for a €2 but homemade should always taste better.

If it’s a vegan recipe you’re looking for. As in one that doesn’t use the traditional ingredient of parmesan cheese – you can either use vegan parmesan or try my recipe for Vegan Basil Pesto Recipe using Nutritional Yeast.

Mint

For me a close second to the aroma of basil is mint. Like basil it grows really well indoors, unlike basil you can actually transplant it to your outdoor garden should you want to. One word of advice though is to keep it in its own pot or area as it can spread quickly. Mint is packed full of goodies too, especially vitamin A, vitamin C, Calcium, Iron and Manganese. It can also help with digestion, nausea and headaches. Personally I love mint in my mojito’s – it’s good to know what helped to cause your headache can also cure it!

Blackberry Mint Scones

I came across this simple baking recipe on Saveur.com. What’s great about it is not only is it simple, but you can use frozen berries, which means those you bought or picked in season and froze for use later will get put to great use. You can read how to use your mint herb in the full recipe here.

Mojito co*cktail

Okay it might not be a meal, but it’s still a recipe! When I first tried a Mojito, I thought it was disgusting. That’s because it was made really badly. When I tried it again, I was converted. Patrick’s simple and easy Mojito recipe is a fail safe way of getting your co*cktail right each time. Here’s his post – co*cktail Time with a Mojito Recipe.

Parsley

Parsleyis probably one of the most well-known and widely used herbs there are. Even when it’s not in a dish, I’m never surprised when I see a little sprig of it used to garnish the plate. Did you know though that parsley is one of the least calorific herbs there are? Okay that’s too random of a fact. It’s not like you’ll be eating it by the bale. What you really need to know is that it is a fantastic herb packed full of goodies like folate, Iron, Calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Vitamin K.

Salmon with Parsley & Garlic Crust

This is the easiest recipe ever! Snip a handful of chopped parsley, two minced cloves of garlic, a cup of grated parmesan and mix together. Put your salmon, skin down on foil on a baking tray, cover with greaseproof paper and put it into the oven on a medium heat for 10 minutes. Take the salmon out of the oven and top with your parsley & garlic topping. The image above is the before picture. Pop it back into the oven and cook until the salmon is cooked through and the topping is golden. Delicious!

Parsley and Walnut Pesto Recipe

What What What! Pesto made from parsley? Yes, indeedy, it’s also known as English Pesto. But I like to call this pesto a ‘Winter Pesto’ because parsley is one of those herbs that grows really well even throughout the winter – I had mine growing from Autumn and it’s still growing strong! I love this spin on a recipe that uses parsley instead of basil and walnuts as instead of pine nuts.

For my full step by step recipe visit: Heh Presto – A Parsley and Walnut Pesto Recipe

When you’ve made your pesto, cook some penne pasta, add a dollop of the pesto to the pasta when drained, a handful of chopped cherry tomatoes and top with grated parmesan. Easy but tasty. It’s also great dolloped on pizza and in toasted sandwiches.

Rosemary

Rosemary reminds me of that song Scarborough Fair – “Are you going to Scarborough Fair?Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme”.

Rosemary is probably the most common dried herb found in spice racks around the country. Fresh rosemary smells gorgeous and woody. It’s perfect for stews and stuffings. Like the herbs I’ve listed above rosemary is no different when it comes to health benefits. It’s packed with Iron, Calcium, Manganese, Vitamin A and Vitamin C.

Rosemary & Thyme Braised Lamb

Rosemary and thyme go together like Sonny and Cher … okay bad example, but you get my drift. They work really well together, especially if it involves roasting vegetables (like my recipe below) or meat. This Rosemary & Thyme Braised Lamb recipe from epicurious.com not only features rosemary and thyme as flavours for the lamb as it cooks but also as sauces to be enjoyed when it is served. Enjoy!

Rosemary Bread

Jamie Oliver does a mean Kenny Rankin’s rosemary focacciabut Rachel Allen does a mean Caramelised Onion & Rosemary Bread. You can choose for yourself which you prefer. If it was up to me I’d bake both. Life’s too short.

For more delicious rosemary recipes, have a read of this article from Buzzfeed.com –39 Delicious Things To Do With Rosemary.

Thyme

Thyme is a super-powered herb that is rich in Iron, Manganese, Vitamin A and Calcium. You’ll usually find it used as sprigs to flavour roasted dishes or stews. If you decide you no longer want it as a part of your windowsill herbs, Thyme is perfect for growing outdoors too. In fact it should flourish outdoors and if you want to plant it with a buddy, then choose rosemary.

Roast Vegetables

Here’s how I cook my roast vegetables. Take for example potatoes, broccoli, carrots, swede and brussels sprouts (as pictured above). First I boil them for about 10 minutes with two squashed cloves of garlic in vegetable stock. Then I drain them and add them to a roasting dish. I top with fresh rosemary and thyme, season and roast. Fantastic.

Prawns with Thyme

This is a simple recipe from finecooking.com. You don’t need many ingredients just fresh prawns, peeled and deveined, fresh thyme and rosemary, olive oil and seasoning. The dish can be served on its own as a main dish or as finger food for starters. For full instructions visit the chefdehome.com website here.

To find out more about the herbs you plan on using or even herbs you’d like to use, – info like their health benefits – a website I’d like to recommend is organicfacts.net.

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