Chives

Want some easy-to-grow plants that look good and that you can use for cooking, garnishing and eating? These are herbs that I have in our front yard that are perennial. (Perennial means they survive the winter and come back every year. In fact, chives, thyme and sage stay green most of the winter, or even throughout the winter if it’s mild, and you can still use them if you don’t take too much of the plant.)

I live in Denver, Colorado, and these grow quite easily without much help from me! All these receive 6+ hours sun a day. Our soil is slightly sandy and not especially nutrient rich. These get watered when we have hot dry spells, but mostly are fine with the typical Colorado summers.

Russian Tarragon

Chives. I use chives lightly cooked in white wine sauces, as topping for potatoes of any kind, garnish any time you’d like a very mild garlic or onion flavor. Use clean scissors to snip the most attractive shoots close to the stem.

Tarragon. Tarragon leaves (but no stems) can be chopped and added to home made salad dressing, vinaigrettes, and marinades. It has an anise-like flavor. A little goes a long way. I think this is Russian Tarragon, which grows really well here and actually prefers less nutritious soil. The recommended culinary version is French Tarragon which is a little more gangly and wayward growing (not so tall and spiky straight), but this version I have works great for my occasional use.

French Thyme

Thyme. Pictured here is French Thyme, the preferred version for chefs and cooks. We are also growing lemon thyme. I use thyme in soup, chicken+turkey dishes. Typically I just toss in a few large pieces into a soup or roasted turkey dish, and then remove the cooked stems before serving. Or you could trim the leaves from the steams and cook them into a pasta sauce.

Sage. This is tri-color sage (shown below). We also have a couple of other types growing in the herb patch, though this particular plant is the happiest. (This picture was just taken a couple of days ago. We’ve had a wet spring and it has really grown big the past few weeks.) I use this with soup, poultry dishes, and one of my favorite dishes of white beans, olive oil, white wine and garlic (and bacon if you’re into it). Again, with this, I toss in a clump during cooking and remove for the final preparation and serving.

Tri-color Sage

With all herbs, when you harvest some of the plant, you’re stimulating them to grow more, so don’t be shy! It’s best to cut the stems close to the ground rather than just picking off leaves. Cutting a stem will cause the plant to get thicker and fuller and retain its natural shape, while picking off individual leaves may cause the plant to split and make new shoots too far up it’s stems so that it gets awkward, more erratically shaped and even tip over.

I’m sure there are several other perennial herbs that work grow well in our arid Colorado climate, feel free to add your favorites in the comments!

Ingredients:

• white potatoes (1 large)
• sweet potatoes (1 medium-large)
• hard boiled eggs (2-3)
• mayo (2-3 tbs) — I use Hain’s Safflower mayo, which is dairy-free.
• brown mustard (1 tbs)
• fresh chives (1 tbs)
• fresh parsley (1 tbs)
• capers (1 tbs)

Directions:

1. Peel potatoes. Cover with water, boil and cook until soft.
2. Drain and set aside to cool.
3. Hard boil eggs. (I place eggs in boiling water, cook for 12 minutes. Remove and immediately place eggs in ice water.)
4. Chop herbs. Put herbs, mustard, mayo, capers in a mixing bowl.
5.  Add potatoes to the herb mixture and mix well.
6. Chop eggs (in quarters or eights), add to mixture and lightly mix.

This is tasty when warm, or after refrigerated. You can easily double or triple this if you’re taking it to a picnic or family reunion.

Herb Vinaigrette:

Combine these ingredients and mix thoroughly. The vinaigrette will keep for a week in the refrigerator. In addition to serving with grilled halibut, you can also use the vinaigrette on salads, steamed vegetables, or as a dipping oil for fresh bread.

• 2/3 cup olive oil (use the best quality you have, I used 1/3 cup lemon infused, 1/3 cup extra virgin)
• juice of 1/2 large lemon
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette
• 1 large or 2 small cloves garlic crushed
• 1 tsp brown mustard
• 1-2 tbs fresh herbs (I used about 1 tbs fresh chives minced, and 1 tbs fresh basil minced. You can use any fresh herb that sounds good to you.)
• dash of salt
• splash of honey

Grilled Halibut:

1. Buy one or more steaks 1″ or thicker
2. Clean your grill grate, then rub with oil (I used olive oil)
3. Rinse and pat dry the halibut steaks
4. Rub each side of the steak with olive oil and fresh lemon juice
5. Grill the steaks on mediumish heat, about 5 minutes on each side (if the steaks are thicker than 1″ add a little time)
6. Serve topped lightly with the vinaigrette