Practical herb lore

The age of antibiotics is over and the world of disease is again a terrifying place. Cancer-causing chemicals are impossible to avoid in modern life and trying to live sustainably on the earth feels like daily battle. Here I collect my experience in the struggle to take back our health. I've been through the wringer of the medical establishment and I am not opposed to doctors, but I have found that homegrown, homemade herbal medicine has rescued my family and me when doctors couldn't. I freely admit that I don't have all the answers and this isn't medical advice. It is practical herb lore that really works and bits and pieces that I share by my hearth.

We’ve all heard that chicken noodle soup is the best thing for someone sick with a cold or flu. But why is that exactly?

I know that sometimes it really hits the spot, especially at the tail end of the cold season when you’re struggling to fight off those tough, long-lasting viral infections.

Well, the broth in the soup is light on your stomach and nourishing. Boiling may damage some vitamins and nutrients in food but not all. A good broth from chicken, fish or vegetables can really carry a lot of nutrition to your body without the heaviness of many foods that weigh down organs made sluggish by illness. Broth is also liquid and consuming a lot of liquid is one of the most important parts of recovering from a viral infection.

Then there are the noodles themselves. We don’t usually want simple carbohydrates in our diet that much. But when you’ve been sick and not eating much for days that is actually a time when you do want them. Those noodles are essentially energy to your cells, including your immune system. So, there’s a possible reason too.

But there is another aspect of chicken noodle soup that is sometimes actually left out entirely in modern times. One of the reasons that chicken noodle soup was such a popular remedy historically was also that it was heavy on herbs, particularly in the words of the song things like parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Today when many people think of cooking with herbs, they think of a teaspoon of an herb in a pot of soup. But that gives little flavor and only a small health benefit.

Many cooking herbs should be treated more like vegetables than like spices. And this is particularly true in times when viral infections are rampant. Add a handful of sage, a handful of parsley, a handful of chives, tablespoon of thyme and a teaspoon of rosemary to that soup and you’ll find that the taste comes alive and the infections recede faster or stay away all together.

I can't include every useful herb for cooking here. But this is my short list of the eight essential cooking herbs that my pantry cannot be without. These herbs not only taste great but also provide health benefits.

1. Basil

Basil pesto on fettuccine by Cliff Hutson of Wikipedia

Basil contains a lot of flavonoids, those little plant pigments that make raspberries red, huckleberries blue and basil bright green. They are important phytonutrients that prevent the kind of cell damage caused by radiation. Basil also contains a lot of vitamins but you have to eat a fairly large amount of basil (more than just a teaspoon in a pot of soup) to enjoy the benefits. Several studies have been done documenting the use of basil particularly in reducing inflammation. What that means for most of us is that basil is a good calming and strengthening influence for the body. One great way to eat a lot of basil is by making pesto, if you can get fresh basil. If you have dried basil, add large handfuls of it to Asian, Mexican and Mediterranean soups.

2. Ginger

Ginger is a great herb for dreary, drizzly and muddy times of the year. Ginger helps some people with an upset stomach or nausea, though I haven’t personally seen a lot of success with it. What I have found it very useful for is that it eases the symptoms of any sort of cold or upper respiratory illness. It warms and clears up passages and generally just makes you feel better. Great ways to get enough ginger to produce this effect are pumpkin soup with a generous amount of fresh ginger root chopped in or gingersnap cookies, also using fresh rather than powdered ginger.

3. Garlic

Garlic is highly prized among herbalists, particularly for its antibiotic properties. However, you should know that the chemical compounds that give garlic antibiotic properties are unstable and they break down with heat. This means that if you cook garlic you lose those benefits. In short, if the garlic doesn’t sting your mouth, it has probably lost its antibiotic properties, whether it is dried, boiled or powdered. Fresh garlic is very helpful in preventing sore throats and other infections at this time of year.

Adding small bits of fresh garlic to your food is pretty much the only way to eat it in comfort. If you don’t have stomach trouble or other disorders that don’t allow you to eat fresh garlic, you can make beet or red cabbage salad with fresh garlic. You can also try a Bohemian specialty from my neck of the woos, garlic soup, and add the garlic in small bits at the end after the stove has been turned off. Fresh garlic in soups, salads or sandwiches will be a bit spicy and very tasty to those who like it. And this is one of the best preventions I know in flu and cold season.

That said, garlic is still both tasty and medicinally useful when it’s cooked. You just have to look to its other benefits. Both raw and cooked garlic contain powerful antioxidants that protect against free radicals and heart disease. So, using large amounts of garlic in your stews, pizzas and casseroles can be a good thing.

4. Parsley

Parley is first and foremost a very nutritious herb with high vitamin and mineral content. It is also a good source of dietary fiber. If you want to eat more dark leafy greens for better health, don’t forget that parsley is among the best. It’s particular combination of nutrients and fiber is good for lowering cholesterol and maintaining the health of the digestive system. You can add parsley on top of many soups, casseroles, salads and just about anything else. One of my family’s favorite recipes for using a lot of parsley is tabbouleh salad.

5. Turmeric

Tumeric has been used medicinally in some cultures for centuries, although it is relatively new to western cooks and herbalists. Today a lot is being made of the health benefits of eating turmeric. One study claims that turmeric kills cancer cells. Others have claimed that it at the very least helps prevent cancer. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear how much of the powdered, dried root, which is what most of us have access to, would be needed to produce a medicinal effect. There aren’t really any problems with eating turmeric though. It has a mild flavor and can be used to color soups, sauces and even cake frosting a nice warm golden color without the use of any harmful dyes. Turmeric is used in many curry spice blends and particularly yellow curries usually use a lot of turmeric.

My husband and children have a mild dislike of rice for some reason. They claim it has an odd smell, so one of the ways we get our dose of turmeric is that I add a teaspoon of ground turmeric for every cup of rice. I like the taste and the beautiful yellow color of the rice after this and my family claims that the turmeric neutralizes the smell they don’t like. I have never been troubled by rice myself but I am glad to have an easy solution for them.

6. Thyme

Thyme is one of my all-time favorite herbs. It’s medicinal qualities are essential in our household but it is also most appreciated in cooking. Thyme has a very beneficial effect on respiratory problems and it is probably part of the reason traditional chicken soup is a good cold and flu remedy. Thyme is also good for digestion and can make many meat dishes tastier and easier on the body. We find thyme essential for any poultry dish at our house.

Chicken soup with dark leafy greens added. Image by Claus Ableiter of Wikipedia

Here is my basic recipe for roast chicken rub, which is simple and always met with enthusiasm:

2 - 3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 TBS dried thyme

1 TBS dried rosemary

A handful of dried sage

7. Sage

If thyme is the first key to good chicken noodle soup, sage is the second key. Your soup may be edible with only one of these herbs in a pinch but the combination is best. Sage is one of the few herbs or spices that actually have some effect on keeping food from spoiling. It is worth noting that most spices, including very hot peppers, do not actually “disinfect” food, so eating over-spiced food won’t tend to protect you from food poisoning. (In fact, it may be a good idea not to eat terribly spicy food when traveling because the extra spices can mask the taste of food beginning to go bad.) I wouldn’t rely on sage to keep unrefrigerated food from going bad, but a healthy handful of sage in a soup broth can help to keep it good. It will also taste fantastic, help sooth respiratory and throat infections and generally strengthen the body.

8. Mint

Used in food - rather than medicinal tea for colds and asthma - mint has a good effect on digestion. If you have digestive troubles, you might look into using mint specifically before meals. It tends to be particularly helpful whenever you have the feeling that food you have eaten is weighting heavily on your stomach. This is often the case with heavy or greasy foods.

In our attempts to support local, organic agriculture, my family has taken to eating lamb as one of our primary meats. We freeze a lot of local lamb in the fall and eat it all winter in stews and roasts. We don’t mind the taste of the lamb. Given that it is raised in a very clean environment in the highlands, the lamb we get doesn’t have a terribly strong flavor. But it is still meat and it has a particular kind of grease that feels heavier than most other meats. There is a reason why traditional recipes for lamb chops often call for mint jelly. The mint has a wonderful property of neutralizing the heaviness and any residual mutton taste about the lamb. I often make stew with lamb just as I would with beef simply by adding a handful of dried mint (the same stuff I use for tea) to the pot along with the other cooking herbs.

I hope you find these ideas useful. Please not that this isn't medical advice from a doctor and not all individuals will respond the same to herbs and some medications can react adversely with herbs. It is always a good idea to share your concerns with your doctor.

I love to hear from you. Please keep in touch and comment in the box below. What is your favorite cooking herb?