Ideas for Dips with Leftover Herbs

Avoid wasting the fresh herbs wilting away in the back of your fridge with these ideas on how to use up parsley, dill, basil and spearmint.

{Note: This blog post originally included my article on Food Waste and Climate Change. It has since been moved to my brand new “Articles” category. The ideas and recipe for using up leftover herbs remain here}

I recently ended up with some vegan cream cheese that was pretty awful. I have drastically cut down on cow dairy and I’m in the process of looking for a good plant based alternative. This one did not make the cut. Even so, I was not going to throw it out so I looked for a way to make it a bit more palatable. Just when I thought I would have to resort to adding a whole load of sugar, I remembered to check Pinterest. And sure enough, it gave me the idea for this dip. And it meant I could use up some herbs I had lying around too… win win! (Details in the recipe section below)

I also had some spearmint so I thought I’d look for a similar solution. I found this delicious chutney that is perfect with poppadoms or naan, or even homemade pitta chips (make sure they are salty, recipe here). If you eat meat you could try it with lamb. I adjusted the quantities according to what I had on hand and ended up making about half the recipe with a little less onion. You can start with small amounts and taste-test and adjust as you go on (e.g. add a bit more sugar, a bit more vinegar etc). See the cream cheese dip and mint chutney in the photo below.

If you have too much parsley for the cream cheese dip mentioned above, you could try this one too. It’s based on a traditional Greek recipe from the Cyclades islands.

For leftover fresh basil I urge you to make this gorgeous vinaigrette here. Drizzle it on a galette like in the recipe or mix it into a summery pasta salad with ripe tomatoes and peaches! Yum.

For fresh thyme and rosemary check out my olive oil dip here. If you have lots you can double or triple the recipe without the oil and balsamic, then divide the mixture into an ice cube tray, cover with some olive oil and freeze. When frozen, pop the cubes into a freezer bag. Then whenever you feel like some dip you can defrost a cube, add evoo and balsamic, and hey presto!

With a bit of imagination we don’t need to ever waste herbs!

Let’s see that cream cheese dip: