It’s summer! And that means plenty of BBQ invites where good friends and good food gather. Sometimes we’d rather just stay home and play in our gardens but how about combining the two? Making a few appetizers with fresh herbs will not only make you feel like you brought a little of your garden with you, it also may earn you invites to more BBQs too! Fresh herbs pack a ton of flavor and can elevate the simplest dish to something rather fantastic. This week’s blog is just for fun. We hope you have plenty of options growing in your garden so you can choose to make any number of these appetizers with fresh herbs. Let’s get cooking! (Disclaimer: I’m not giving nutrition facts, or servings, or telling you to wash your herbs before cooking because I assume you all are smart and can figure those things out.)

4 Easy Appetizers with Fresh Herbs

Caprese Skewers

This simple appetizer is awesome because it looks elegant but is really easy to make! This is one where the fresh herbs really stand out and make the difference in flavor. Easy to assemble, easy to eat. I can practically guarantee there won’t be a skewer left on the plate when it’s time to go home.

What you need:

• Medium length wooden skewers
• Fresh mozzarella pearls
• Fresh basil leaves (I prefer the common sweet basil for this)
• Ripe cherry tomatoes
• Salt/pepper to taste
• Good olive oil to drizzle
• Balsamic glaze…optional, but don’t you dare leave it out

How to do it:

• Basically, you are just going to thread, one after the other, the cherry tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and repeat until the skewer is full.
• Then drizzle a little olive oil and balsamic glaze on top along with a little salt and pepper.

See! Super simple and yet delicious. This appetizer really highlights the fresh herbs, and it looks so beautiful too. No cooking required.

Rosemary Skewers and Steak/Chicken/Shrimp (whatever):

This appetizer with fresh herbs is versatile because you can use any type of protein you prefer, or even just keep it strictly vegetarian if you prefer. You can fancify this up and make your own favorite marinade, but I’m all about simple today, so the ingredients are minimal but flavorful. What I truly love again, is the presentation of the herbs. A stem of rosemary becomes a utensil in the form of a skewer.

What you need:

• Protein choice – chicken tenders/thighs, steak or a selection of veggies that work great on the grill. (How much you need depends on how large you want the skewers and how many people you are feeding. Appetizers are supposed to be little bites)
• One large sweet onion (optional, but it makes everything taste even better)
• Bottle of Greek salad dressing (Italian would work too)
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• Rosemary stems – cut to the length you prefer. (We love the rosemary variety ‘BBQ’ for this, as it has strong, straight stems sturdy enough for skewers)

How to do it:

• Remove about 2/3 of the rosemary needles from the stem and set aside. You can easily do this by simply holding the top 2″ of the rosemary stems and with your other hand, create a loose pinch with your fingers and slide the needles down the stem in the opposite direction that they are growing. Leave a little tuft of rosemary to where it will stick out the top of your “skewer”.
• Cut your protein or vegetables into medium sized chunks. If you are using the onion, cut that into like-sized pieces.
• Marinate both the protein and/or veggies in the bottle of Greek salad dressing for at least 30 minutes.
• Thread protein and/or veggies onto the rosemary skewers.
• Grill on med-high heat until cooked through, or if using steak, to your cooking preference
• Remove from the grill and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Herbed Cheese Spread

 Simple, simple, simple is the name of the game here. What I love about this appetizer is that you can make it with many different herbs. It can taste like a brand-new recipe each time you make it!

What you need:

• 8 ounces of cream cheese
• About a 1/4 cup of fresh herbs (choose multiple types like a mixture of dill and chives, or stick with a singular herb, no rules)
• 1/2 tsp – 1 tsp. of garlic powder
• A few tablespoons of Greek yogurt/sour cream/or milk (mostly for texture and thinning out the cheese spread)
• 1/4 tsp of kosher salt

How to do it:

• Soften cream cheese by bringing to room temperature
• Finely chop all herbs and mix into the cream cheese along with the garlic powder
• Slowly add yogurt/milk/sour cream (whichever you choose, and only if needed) 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing while you do, to get the consistency you like
• Keep refrigerated until party time
• Serve with crackers/pita chips/crostini

Fried Sage Leaves

Stay with me on this one. It may sound weird but if you haven’t ever tried just straight frying up some sage, you ‘ve been missing out. This epitomizes the appetizers with fresh herbs theme. I mean, it’s just the herb, a little oil and some salt and pepper. You’ll truly be tasting your garden with this one. this might be a better appetizer for home, since you’d have to have quite a few sage plants to feed a crowd. The fried sage also is amazing as a garnish sprinkled onto pasta dishes, and when you are done frying the sage, you are left with a nicely infused olive oil too!

What you need:

• Fresh sage leaves
• Avocado oil or Olive oil (I like to sometimes mix them a little bit because avocado oil has a higher heat level to fry at.
• Salt/Pepper

How to do it:

• Make sure you use a deeper pan, so you’ll have less oil splatter.
• Coat the bottom of the pan with a layer of your oil.
• Oil should be nice and hot before putting the sage leaves in.
• Don’t overload pan, sage should be in a single layer
• Only takes about 30 seconds for them to crisp so watch them the whole time.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to dry.
• Salt immediately after removing (the heat helps the salt stick)

Let’s also not discount the refreshing simplicity of water infused with herbs and citrus, or other fruits. You might not want to lug a huge jar of water to your next party but if it’s a hot summer day, I bet that tasty water would be guzzled down in seconds. If nothing else, make sure to infuse some water with fresh herbs for yourself for those sweltering days you are out working in your gardens. My favorite is sprigs of lemon verbena and sprigs of rosemary with some slices of lemon and satsuma. I can easily work another hour in the garden after getting fully hydrated with this zero sugar treat! Hope this has inpsired you to use your herbs to the fullest and if you don’t have any…I know where you can get some!

~The Happy Gardener, Lisa Mulroy