What herbs did you grow up with? Growing up in the Northern Territory to an English family, herbs were not widely used in our house. We always had mint sauce with certain meals but unfortunately more often than not it was made with dried mint. My mum did grow parsley and that was a regular in salads and as garnishes. Then when my mum discovered the delicious flavours of Italian cooking we had basil. Fresh Basil was hard to come by and we often had to resort to dried basil.

As an adult for years my herb usage has been limited. Parsley in absolutely everything, mint in many things, basil and orgegano in Italian food, rosemary with potatoes, polenta and in Greek Lentil soup and thyme in beetroot soup.

Thyme is my new discovery. I used to see people put it in pasta sauces and wondered why. I mix it very nicely with sage and make nut roast or stuffed mushrooms and most recently I use it in an Israeli inspired soup (search the blog for Pumpkin Soup with Zaatar Style Spices). Denise Latham who grows the lettuce I eat and use on my catering jobs grows the most divine thyme so it is featuring more in my cooking. The main reason why I am using it more is it is a brilliant source of iron. It also has a high vitmain C content helping the iron be absorbed more easily in the body.  As well as this thyme is a great antioxidant.

Thyme has a lengthy history and there are a few varieties including lemon and orange thyme. When preparing something with thyme I always joke that it is called thyme because it takes so bloody long to get the beautiful little leaves off the hard to chew stems. I will start off with all good intentions to get a decent tablespoon full of fresh thyme in a recipe and then loose patience and make do with half a spoon. Like flossing teeth I am learning that it is worth persevering with as the health benefits are wonderful.

What you can add thyme to

anything with beetroot

eggs

it goes well with oregano- so a lovely dressing of thyme and oregano, lemon juice and olive oil

in burgers- the last blog post

in the nut roasts in Veet's Cuisine delicious vegetarian recipes

mushrooms filled with crushed nuts and thyme

and with this wonderful stew recipe below.  If you want to make the stew in summer serve with a small side salad of cut cucumber, thinly sliced onion and celery.

Stew With Thyme and Millet

4 tomatoes finely diced

2 tbsp fresh thyme

1 tbsp oregano

2 tsp sumac

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

2 hot chillies (optional)

1 onion finely diced

1 garlic clove minced (optional)

2 handfuls of millet

500 vegetables of your choice- i used eggplant, pumpkin, mushrooms, broccoli and zucchini

400g cooked beans (i used adzuki and have used cannelini)

In a saucepan place a splash of oil then add the first 9 ingredients in the list.  Simmer for 10 minutes or so then add the vegetables, if needed add some filtered water. Cook until the vegetables are soft or to your liking. Next add the beans and voila there you go there you have it a lovely stew with plenty of flavour.

Categories:Mains

Tags:adzuki beans beans millet thyme

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  • Gatya