What to Do With Herb Stems Instead of Tossing Them

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Jovana A
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Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

While we all love using herbs when cooking, the herb stems are often neglected and thrown away. If you hate wasting food and want to use what you have to the max, here are our favorite things to do with soft herb stems.

Infuse Oils and Vinegar

You can use soft stems from herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, and rosemary to infuse oils and vinegar. Once you do that, use the oil and vinegar to give a unique flavor to salads, fish, and many other meals.

Add to Soup

While your soup or broth is cooking, toss in the unused stems of the herbs you’ve been using. They will help you get the richer flavor and you can simply remove them before serving. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!

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HERBY CHICKPEA & NOODLE SOUP . This is a version of Ash Reshteh, a Persian greens, beans & noodle soup. It’s wholesome, nourishing and incredibly flavourful. A particularly hearty soup that is a whole meal by itself. . MEHTHOD for 4: 1 onion thinly chopped, 5 garlic cloves crushed, 100g red lentils/split peas, fresh parsley, fresh coriander, spinach, noodles ( I used rice noodles), limes and a tin of chickpeas. 👉 1️⃣ Add oil, garlic, onion to a pan for 20 mins till golden brown. Stir in turmeric and salt/pepper (Reserve some of the mix). To the pan add the chickpeas and lentils, then simmer for 30 mins with veg stock. Add herbs, spinach for another 5 mins then the noodles till cooked. At the end stir through lime juice and yoghurt if you’d like and the reserved garlic/onion mix. . . . . #chickpeas #chickpearecipes #soup #souprecipe #chickpeasoup #noodles #noodlesoup #persianfood #ashreshteh #herbs #plantbased #greens #vegancomfortfood #wholefoods #veganeats #nourishingbowl #bowlfood #healthylunchideas #eatyourgreens #realfoodie #goodfood #studentfoodie #foodbloggeruk

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Add to Sauces

If you finely chop the stems, you can add them to sauces, but also to various other foods. Stems are just as flavorful as the leaves and there’s no reason not to add them to veggie burgers, salads, frittatas, and more.