Garnish This!

Garnish This!

Posted by Marisa Belger on May 23, 2006 - 12:44pm.

Parsley is traditionally relegated to a mere garnish, but the herb has so much more to offer. Firstly, the leafy green is an excellent natural breath freshener. While mints and gum simply cover potent breath, parsley treats halitosis (or the aftermath of a garlicy dinner) from the inside out.

Parsley comes in several varieties - Italian and flat leaf are the most popular - and is also an excellent source of calcium, iron, and Vitamins A and C. Parsley is also known for its volatile oils - myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene - which may be linked to a the prevention of several cancers and also give the herb the title of "chemoprotective" food. Parsely can neutralize certain carcinogens ike the benzopyrenes that are part of cigarette smoke, charcoal grill smoke (see The Side Effects of BBQ), and the smoke produced by trash incinerators.

According to this month's Natural Health, several studies have found that parsley may also reduce blood sugar in diabetics, prevent stomach ulcers and act as a diuretic.

Image: wikipedia.org

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Taste

by Marie on May 25, 2006 - 8:42am

If only it taste better like wintergreen leaves, but the sharp bitterness makes me pause when picking it up off my plate.

yum

by Paul_Freibott on May 25, 2006 - 5:43pm

I eat it whenever possible after garlic or onions. Zap! No bad breath. It's truly miraculous, even better than mint. It's also an essential flavor in tabouleh.

Parsley hints

by Anonymous on May 26, 2006 - 11:12am

Cooks Illustrated did a taste test because so many recipes call for flat-leaf parsley and claim that the curly doesn't taste as good. They found that no one could tell the difference. The way to cut parsley is to make sure it is dry first. I cut mine with kitchen shears, making the finest cuts I can. Or if you use a knife, make sure you only cut it once, not go over the same cuts a bunch of times. This will make your tabbouleh all wet and nasty. A proper tabbouleh should be about 2/3 parsley or more. Not these mixes where it is mostly bulghur.