Decorative by Design – Nutritious by Nature

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Parsley is a tasty companion on many occasions. And it beautifully completes your nutritional scale.

To be honest, I too underestimated parsley at first. As a child, it was a pure nuisance to me. It was always in the way when I wanted to eat my potatoes or salad at a restaurant. So crumbly and hard, strange taste.

Later, when I was studying, I got a little roommate with long ears (bought at a big fish market – but that’s another story). This little gal practically lived on parsley, eating whole forests of it. Of course, she preferred the plain, mild-tasting ‘Italian’ variety with the big leaves, not that curly, bitter stuff that always gets stuck in your teeth.

It was only then that I realized how many beneficial properties parsley has as a regular food. For my furry friend, of course, they were clear – especially if you have a particularly sensitive stomach like rabbits do.

So I literally had parsley in the house all the time. And I started making discoveries like:

Parsley

  • reduces the extreme odor effects when eating it fresh after a garlic-spiced dish.
  • rounds out the flavor of pretty much all vegetables, whether you cook them or eat them raw as in a salad. But you would never add the leaves whole, but chop it up with a cradle knife and mix it in.
  • contains a lot of calcium (among other beneficial nutrients). So if you eat parsley regularly, you have a good source of this mineral.
  • relieves the effects of flatulent foods like lentils or beans when you mix it into the meal. As always with fresh soft herbs, add the chopped parsley leaves as late as possible.
  • gives you a whole plant to use. The root of parsley is a very good ingredient to make a rich broth. Also, you will have to add less salt.
  • stems, cut into small segments, can be added to the cooking vessel with the first elements of a dish. The fresh green stays in the stems for a long time, so all looks nice and tastes more complete.
  • is easy to grow in the garden, on the balcony or even on the windowsill. Smooth parsley also grows into frosts and will be perennial if you keep it a little protected. In the second year, the plants will reward you not only with delicious herbs to eat, but also with the most beautiful leaves that almost look like a creation straight out of the Art Deco era.

So, yes, I really like parsley. Still always have it in the house.

… beautiful leaves that almost look like a creation straight out of the Art Deco era. …

Side Notes:

  • Fresh ‘Italian’ parsley has a bright green color with large leaves that are a slightly darker shade of green. It also has smooth leaves. If they are too hard, the parsley is old and will be crunchy and take a long time to cook (losing its nutrients). And good parsley smells like parsley. I get ours from a stand at a local farmers’ market where I know the family who grows it.
  • If you keep parsley standing in a glass of water, be sure to cut off about 3 – 5 cm (1 – 2 inches) of the stems, as you would with fresh flowers, before putting them into the water.
  • After keeping the parsley in a vase/glass of water for a few days, rinse the stems and cut them again at the bottom. This will keep it fresh longer.