Last weekend, I made recipes from Naz Deravian’s Persian cookbook, “Bottom of the Pot,” which called for piles of emerald-green herbs and left me with extras in my fridge. I’ve been using them up by adding glorious fistfuls of chopped herbs to recipes that otherwise call for a quarter-cup here, a garnish there. Below, you’ll find five dinners that lend themselves particularly well to adding leafy herbs like parsley, cilantro, mint and dill.
On another note, don’t miss this recipe for buttermilk sugar biscuits, which Eric Kim called “the best biscuits I’ve ever tasted outside the South.” A batch of these alongside scrambled eggs (showered with herbs, of course) would make an excellent breakfast for dinner. And finally, today is the last day of our All Access sale, which gives you a special rate on everything The Times offers, including unlimited access to Cooking. If you’ve considered becoming a subscriber, now is the perfect time. Subscribe today.
What are you cooking? What recipes would you like to see here? Let me know at dearemily@nytimes.com.
1. One-Pan Crispy Chicken and Chickpeas
Yossy Arefi’s speedy new recipe requires almost no chopping at all — which should give you the strength to chop up a few herbs to stir into that yogurt on the side, if you’d like. Mint, cilantro, dill or parsley would all be great.
2. Salmon With Garlic Butter and Tomato Pasta
This recipe from Ali Slagle is smart multitasking: You broil the salmon and tomatoes on one pan, while you cook pasta in a skillet with garlic and butter. Toss the pasta with the sweet, juicy tomatoes, and there’s your dinner. Add lots of parsley and mint to the chopped basil to serve.
3. Coconut-Caramel Braised Tofu
In this quick vegan meal from Kay Chun, tofu simmers in a sauce of coconut milk, miso, ginger and garlic, which reduces into a caramel sauce. Kay serves it scattered with scallions and squeezed with lime; basil and cilantro would make superb additions.
4. Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
Yasmin Fahr’s Mediterranean-ish meatballs can cook side-by-side in the oven with a pan of asparagus, green beans or broccoli. But I’d eat them with rice, yogurt and a blizzard of herbs of all kinds, along with some arugula, too.
5. Baghali Ghatogh (Fava Bean Stew)
Naz Deravian assures us that you can use frozen fava beans (rather than fresh) in this early-spring recipe from northern Iran, which is rich with dill and garlic, and usually served with rice. If frozen favas aren’t available, use canned butter beans or frozen lima beans. (I can’t in good faith recommend that you peel a heap of fresh fava beans on a Tuesday night, but if you’re up for it, they’re a delicious seasonal treat.)
