Weekend Herb Blogging Round Up!

Welcome to my first stint at hosting Weekend Herb Blogging, the weekly food blogging event where bloggers around the world submit information and recipes using their favorite herbs, plants, vegetables and flowers. WHB is the brainchild of the lovely Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen. This week for WHB #74 we've got a nice even 25 entries (according to my somewhat dubious counting skills). So, without further ado, in order of submission:

Arroz con Pollo with Recado Rojo
Asha from Aroma!
North Carolina, USA
Asha creates a beautiful chicken-and-rice dish flavored with annatto, a spice from the exotic achiote plant. She mixes annatto with other spices to create recado rojo, a bright red paste often used in Mexican cuisine. Her colorful post features beautiful step-by-step pictures.

Salmon & Fatoush
Ruth from Once Upon a Feast
Toronto, Canada
This summery meal is full of flavorful herbs: mint, parsley, coriander, and the star of the dish, ground sumac. Not only will Ruth's fresh fish and fatoush (try saying that five times fast!) transport you to a time of warmer weather, it's healthy and South Beach Diet friendly.

Spinach and Tofu Paneer
Emily from Superspark
Pasadena, California, USA
Whether you call it saag paneer or palak paneer, or even if you don't know the difference, Emily's first attempt at cooking Indian food looks like a success to me. It's spicy, full of good-for-you spinach, and less buttery/oily than restaurant fare.

Nettle Soup
Joanna from Joanna's Food
Henley on Thames, England
Joanna cleverly turns nettles, a stinging weed common in the UK, into a yummy soup. Nettles are full of iron and vitamin C, so hopefully they'll help Joanna get over her cold!

Chicken and Quickly Roasted Asparagus Served with Tahini Sauce
Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Kalyn, the original creator of Weekend Herb Blogging, created yet another delicious-looking dish this week, continuing on her asparagus kick - this time served with chicken and tahini, made from sesame seeds. Kalyn, no matter what you have to say about your drizzling skills, your photographs are always beautiful!

Turmeric
Sandeepa from Bong Mom's CookBook
New Jersey, USA
This post provides lots of great information about turmeric, a spice used a lot in Indian cooking and culture. Sandeepa tells us why turmeric is good for you, and offers a suggestion for how to prepare fresh turmeric.

Goan Style Fish Curry with Tamarind
Ros from Living to Eat!
London, England
Despite having to deal with some irritating flatmates, Ros successfully made a yummy-looking fish curry that gets taken to another level with the addition of distinctively sour-tasting tamarind paste.

Sweet Potato Soup
Angie from My Kitchen, My Laboratory
Singapore
Angie turns the sweet potato, one of many root vegetables that she's been discovering, into a sweet soup that can be served warm or chilled as a refreshing dessert. This recipe is flexible and can be adapted to your own personal tastes.

Bear's Garlic
Helene from News from the Kitchen (Neues aus der Kuche)
Landau, Germany
This bilingual (English/German) post gives lots of information about bear's garlic, an herb that tastes like a cross between garlic and chives and is sometimes called ramp in the United States. It also gives a recipe for "amaranth crackers," which I am not familiar with but look great!

Emerald Soup
Katie from Thyme for Cooking
Vendee, France
Even though St. Patrick's Day isn't celebrated in France, Katie made a festive Irish-inspired green soup made from spinach - based on a recipe she got straight from a London chef. It's colorful, looks delicious, and is good for you!

"Quintessential" Roasted Vegetables
Sher from What Did You Eat?
Davis, California, USA
Sher's gorgeous step-by-step photos walk us through the making of this incredible-looking mix of roasted vegetables. The secret to equally cook all of the various vegetables is to parboil some of them first.

Red Lentil-Cauliflower Coconut Curry
Burcu from Almost Turkish Recipes
Bloomington, USA
This improvised curry turned out so well that it's going to become one of Burcu's standards. It's full of interesting spices and flavored with bay leaves.

Achiote Potatoes and Black-Eyed Peas
Sheela from Quick and Easy Recipes: Delectable Victuals
Portland, Oregon, USA
First-time WHB blogger Sheela gives us another post featuring annatto/achiote seeds, this time using achiote paste to create a yummy red rub for potatoes. Achiote is something I am going to have to try sometime soon!

Cauliflower with Crab and Balsamic Vinegar
Rinku from Cooking in Westchester
Westchester County, New York, USA
Rinku re-invented a scallop recipe to use up some crab she had on hand, with great results. Her substitution of white balsamic vinegar helped the dish keep a light, pretty color.

Genoa Figs with Buffalo Mozzarella "A La Pearl"
Haalo from Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once
Melbourne, Australia
This post gives lots of information about my favorite fruit in the world, the fig, which is currently in season in Australia. The dish that Haalo creates is a stunning salad of fresh figs, pomegranate, and buffalo mozzarella - it almost looks too good to be true!

Falafel Sandwiches
Nupur from One Hot Stove
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Nupur shares her love of falafel and tries out a new favorite recipe. She gives some good tips on preparing the chickpeas and frying up the falafel balls. Her tahini sauce recipe is also a bit hit - overall a very delicious looking meal!

Yoghurt Bread with Caramelized Onion
Anh from Food Lover's Journey
Melbourne, Australia
Onion, the "humble ingredient," looks anything but humble in this yummy treat. The yogurt in the bread gives it a nice tangy flavor similar to sourdough, and the caramelised onions are lightly sweet. If you have any tips for chopping onions without crying, let Anh know!

Catfish Salad with Green Beans and Toasted Almonds
Christine from Christine Cooks
Trinidad, California, USA
A special herb blend just for fish makes this catfish salad special. Christine really brings out the celery flavor in the blend by adding some extra celery salt. She tops the dish off with a really great-looking champagne-raspberry vinaigrette.

Alice Arndt's Seasoning Savvy
Eve from In Mol Araan
Greenwich Village, New York, USA
Eve put together some especially neat excerpts from Alice Arndt's book about cooking with herbs and spices. There's some interesting tidbits on coconut, dill, rose water, and marigold.

Lithuanian Pickled Fish
Anna from Morsels and Musings
Sydney, Australia
Anna's been cooking her way around the world, and this week she was inspired by the cuisine of Lithuania. She brined some white fish in a sweet-sour sauce and used dried bay leaves to give the brine an intense flavor.

Chinese Cabbage and Cumin Sour Soup
Virginie from Absolutely Green
Nantes, France
This bilingual French & English post gives us a recipe for a quick, easy-to-make, unique soup inspired by Chinese, Belgian, and Mediterranean cuisines. This soup looks smooth and warming, good for a cold winter night (like we're still having here in Boston).

Potato Hummus with Beans and Lamp Chops
Ulrike from Kuchenlatein
Kronshagen, Germany
Ulrike makes good use of the rosemary growing her garden in this hearty dinner. Tahini sauce gives it an international flavor as well.

Braised Pork Chops with Leek
Pookah from What's Cooking in Carolina?
The Triangle, North Carolina, USA
Another blogger inspired by St. Patrick's Day this weekend created a green meal with "shamrock pasta" but focused her WHB entry on another meal, braised pork chops, featuring the always popular bay leaf.

Penne with Pumpkin and Ham
Astrid from Paulchen's FoodBlog?!
Vienna, Austria
After celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a lot of food, today Astrid created a yummy light lunch of pasta. It looks so good I want to reach into the picture and take a bite!

Brown Butter Soda Bread
Becky from Key Lime & Coconut
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Finally, I made a St. Patrick's Day inspired Irish soda bread with fresh rosemary and cracked black pepper. Enjoy it with some Guinness!

Thanks for visiting this week's WHB round up. Next week our host will be Kate from Thyme for Cooking, so you can send your entries to her at kate DOT zeller AT wanadoo DOT fr. Happy food blogging!