Mix & Match Dressing from the Aerogarden

We got the fantastic Aerogarden last year as a gift. It’s a hydroponic garden with a digital display that tells you when to add fertilizer and water. The lights are programmed to go on and off on a daily cycle. It’s about as easy as gardening can be. Ours was meant for herbs, and came with a bunch of little pre-seeded pods that we inserted. We’ve been growing the same set of herbs for about 9 months now. We started with two kinds of basil, mint, parsley, chives, and cilantro. The chives never sprouted and the cilantro finished a few months ago. The basil, mint, and parsley are still going strong. We can hardly keep up! We’re always looking for ways to use the abundance of herbs.

One recipe I like to make when the Aerogarden is in need of a serious trim is this mix and match herb dressing. In the photo above, you can see how overgrown our Aerogarden got this time. I trimmed it up and it looked much nicer, as seen in the top photo. I call this dressing mix and match because you can use any herbs you want in whatever combinations. I just pull all the leaves off the stems and pop them into a food processor with the other ingredients. Give it a whirl and it’s done in a minute. I like to save my parsley stems for making stock, and the mint stems for tea. I don’t know what to do with basil stems though, especially the really woody ones. Any ideas?

This recipe can be easily divided or doubled. I just make however much I happen to trim from my herbs. The dressing has a fresh acidic flavor that adds zing to any dish. You can do so many different things with it. Most recently, I mixed it with some rice and topped it with an over-easy egg. Boom! 5 minute dinner.

Other suggestions for the dressing are to serve it on scrambled eggs, as salad dressing, with steak instead of chimichurri, or mixed with rice or quinoa. Comment with your ideas for how else to use this dressing!

Mix and Match Herb Dressing
Recipe by Hillary Huber
 
Makes about 1 ½ cups
 
Ingredients
2 cups mixed herb leaves (I used basil, parsley, and mint)
½ a red onion, chopped roughly
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
A few grinds of black pepper
½ cup olive oil
½ cup apple cider vinegar
 
Instructions
Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until it reaches a relatively smooth consistency, about 1 minute. Scrape down and process more if needed. Transfer to a jar with the assistance of a funnel.