Herb gar­dens are going crazy all over town and we want you to make use of that bounty in every meal. Here we present a series of recipes and ideas for putting all those deli­cious plants to good use.

The leaves of this herb are known as cilantro and the seeds known as corian­der. In July the plant blooms with tiny white flow­ers that give way to bright green seeds and these seeds are fresh corian­der. They taste like a com­bi­na­tion of the soapy, wild cilantro leaf and the spicy, aro­matic dried corian­der seed. They only last for a short time, make sure to use them while you can and if you can’t use them all just har­vest and pop in the freezer.

They pro­vide tiny bursts of unique flavour that you can toss into sal­ads, gar­nish soups and spice up sal­sas and curries.

I like them in this Middle Eastern inspired quinoa salad. Quinoa is high in pro­tein, con­tains a bal­anced set of amino acids, is a good source of phos­pho­rous and is high in mag­ne­sium and iron. So put down that prepack­aged bag of coleslaw and the tub of Miracle Whip. Make this salad right now.

Mix quinoa, cur­rants, lemon juice and zest with shaved almonds, pars­ley, mint and fresh corian­der seeds. Add some olive oil and sea­son with salt and pep­per. Simple.