Fresh herbs in the grocery store are a pet peeve of mine.  Unless I’m cooking for a bunch of people, I almost always end up with some left unused.  And then I put them in a cup, water covering the stems, and set them in the grocery, where they will almost certainly go to waste, me unable to throw them out because of my abhorrence of waste and they not able to keep from eventually turning into a mush.

So I was psyched to hear that I could microwave fresh herbs and, presto, get a dried version that will keep.

First, let me note that I bought this mint something like a week and a half ago.  Safely cocooned in its petroleum-based shell, this bunch was more or less the same today as it was in January.  Second, maybe it lasted because the whole thing was still attached to its roots.  Anyway…

Nuke in the microwave for two minutes, “fluff,” re-nuke for another minute.  The woman who told me this said that the color would be preserved.  And it kind of was.

But the microwave changed the taste, too, in a way that I simply can’t place and that Shannon has described both as “hot dog” and “like a mushroom.”  That’s not it, though, it’s something almost savory, like an herb you’d use in a pot of chili.

So, yeah, dried herbs.  Or just a lot of mint tea once the recipe has been fulfilled, microwave-free.