recipe – Use That Herb

Roasted Potatoes with Oregano and Parsley is an easy-to-make vegetable dish. It’s one you can make up ahead of time and keep refrigerated before you need that special side dish.

The dish is better with the fewer ingredients you put in there.

Once on a particularly hectic day in the kitchen I somehow forgot to add the onions AND the garlic so the potatoes only had butter and parsley. Now that’s the meaning of bland. Salt and cracked pepper kicked up the flavor in my mouth, but without a little onion or garlic in the mix the plain potatoes tasted super flat.

You could add other vegetables to make a sort of roasted vegetable dish, but with potatoes and onions you can’t go wrong. If the potatoes are slightly overcooked by the time they’re reheated the onions may be reduced to just a glaze, but that’s alright. Other vegetables that cook at different speeds get a little mushy for my taste when cooked with potatoes, so we’ll do them separate, ok?

Snip the fresh herbs from the mother plants and then rinse off. Shake off water by grasping the stems of the herbs and whacking the plants against your hand. You can feel when most of the water has been shaken off. Trim the leaves with a pair of scissors to make small pieces of herb, like flakes.

Roasted Potatoes with Oregano and Parsley

set oven to 375 degrees
butter a small baking dish
peel 2-3 medium potatoes
cube potatoes into bite-size pieces and add to dish
dice 1 small onion and add to dish
smash or press garlic clove(s) and add to dish
dot with butter
snip 3-4 sprigs each of fresh parsley and oregano
sprinkle with fresh cut herb flakes
season with salt and cracked pepper
cover dish with lid or aluminum foil
bake @ 375 degrees for 30 min., until potatoes are fork tender

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh cut parsley flakes or chives.

The herbs that we like are parsley and Greek oregano, but other herbs could be used like thyme, rosemary, tarragon or chives. The flavor of some herbs may be better when added after cooking, like tarragon and chives.

How yellow is your macaroni salad? If you haven’t used turmeric before, be warned, “This is one yellow, but tasty, salad!”

Turmeric can spice up any salad. It has a pleasing spicy taste, in the way of a mild mustard. It’s not even mildly hot in the kind of heat that feels like it’s burning your tongue, but it gives a very slight tongue tingle when you eat enough.

Turmeric macaroni salad using one teaspoon turmeric powder instead of mustard.

This Indian spice gives a bright yellow color that’s almost psychedelically bright. At first I thought it would be a turn off, but nobody seemed to mind the color as leftovers were gone the next day. This macaroni salad uses turmeric powder instead of mustard, so it might be called a mustard substitute.

Turmeric Macaroni Salad Recipe

Boil a large pot of water and cook half a box of macaroni for about 13 minutes, until firm. Drain, rinse with cool water and shake off excess water. Transfer to large serving bowl.

While the noodles cook, chop any selection of available vegetables. In this case we chopped 2 stalks celery, grated 1 large carrot and sliced 1 fresh garlic sprout. Try adding chopped broccoli, cauliflower, onions, crushed pineapple or boiled eggs.

In separate small bowl, or mug, mix: 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 tsp. turmeric, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 2 tsp. honey, 1 tsp. cider vinegar. Add to macaroni and vegetables and mix well. Cut sprigs of fresh dill or parsley over top for serving.