Herbs & fruits

We've all got a favorite herb or fruit, but most of us probably don't know where they come from or what their plant even looks like.
We're sure you know about how a few of these foods grow, but most of you probably don't know all of them. It's also interesting to note how many different parts of these plants we like to eat.
Many of these herbs and fruits are just one edible sub-species in a larger category of plants that we can't eat. Knowing where your food comes from and how it is made is important because it allows us to make more educated choices about what we eat.

That's why we've compiled a list of 24 delicious herbs and fruits:

Coriander - all parts of the plant are edible, most traditionally used in cooking but also used the leaves to make drinks.

Basil - It´s a culinary tender plant, the leaves may taste somewhat like anise, with a strong, pungent, often sweet smell. Basil is most commonly used fresh in recipes but also dried herb to made sauce, soup and drink. The leaves are not the only part of basil used, the flower buds have more subtle flavor and they are edible. The seeds become gelatinous, and are used in drinks and desserts.

Mint - the leaf is the culinary source of mint. The leaves have a warm, fresh, aromatic, sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste.

Thyme - It´s a delicate herb that's an ideal addition to many drinks, it has a wonderfully aromatic quality. A fairly common herb used in mainstream cooking, Thyme has a mild flavor that reminds some of mint. Popular for use in a variety of dishes. Offering a mild flavor profile, Thyme is can be a pleasant addition to many drinks. Feature clear spirits and fruit flavors to create warm weather refreshers.

Lemongrass - It´s a widely used as a culinary herb in cuisines. It has a subtle citrus flavor and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. It is commonly used in teas, soups, and also suitable for use with foods.

Chamomile - It´s one of the most ancient medicinal plants known to mankind. Herbal infusion made from dried chamomile flowers and hot water.

Rosemary - It´s a herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers. The leaves are used to flavor various foods. They have a bitter, astringent taste and a characteristic aroma. The leaves, twigs, and flowering apices are extracted for use.
Herbal tea can be made from the leaves. When roasted with meats or vegetables, The leaves impart a mustard-like aroma with an additional fragrance of charred wood. In amounts typically used to flavor foods, such as one teaspoon (1 gram), rosemary provides no nutritional value. Rosemary extract has been shown to improve the shelf life and heat stability of omega 3-rich oils which are prone to rancidity. Rosemary oil is used for purposes of fragrant bodily perfumes or to emit an aroma. A robust herb that features a woody stem and needles similar to a pine tree. Generally it will work well with in drink sweet, acidic flavors like citrus (Lemon, Lime & Orange), cranberry and tomato.

Fennel - It´s a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It´s a highly aromatic and flavorful herb with culinary and medicinal uses and, along with the similar-tasting anise. The inflated leaf bases are eaten as a vegetable, both raw and cooked. The bulb, foliage, and seeds of the fennel plant are used in many of the culinary traditions. For cooking, green seeds are optimal.[9] The leaves are delicately flavored and similar in shape to those of dill. The bulb is a crisp vegetable that can be sautéed, stewed, braised, grilled, or eaten raw. Young tender leaves are used for garnishes, as a salad, to flavor sauces, and also in soups and drinks.

A pink peppercorn - It´s a dried berry of the shrub Schinus molle, commonly known as the Peruvian peppertree. Pepper fragrance, with pink color, ideal to garnish drinks as usual. Although a peppercorn is the dried fruit of a plant from the genus Piper, pink peppercorns came to be called such because they resemble peppercorns, and because they, too, have a peppery flavour. Dried berries from the related species Schinus terebinthifolia (the Brazilian pepper), are sometimes also called pink peppercorns. The dried berries of that shrub are employed as culinary spice.

Lavender - It´s a specie of flowering plants. Are cultivated for use as culinary herbs, and also commercially for the extraction of essencial oils. As an aromatic, it has a sweet fragrance with a taste of lemon or citrus notes. Are used in pastas, salads, desserts, drinks and dressings and garnish. The buds and greens are used in teas and the dried buds, which are also referred to as flowers, are used. The potency of the lavender flowers increases with drying which makes their use more sparingly to avoid a heavy, soapy aftertaste. Lavender buds can amplify both sweet and savory flavors in dishes, and is sometimes paired with sheep´s - milk and goat´s milk cheeses. Lavender flavours baked goods and desserts, pairing especially well with chocolate. Both lavender syrup and dried lavender buds are used to make lavender scones and marshmallows. Lavender is used in savory dishes, giving stews and reduced sauces aromatic flair. It´s also used to scent flans, custards, and sorbets. The greens are used similarly to rosemary or combined with rosemary to flavour meat and vegetables in savory dishes. They can also be used to make a tea that is milder than teas made with the flowers.

Ginger - It´s a floweing plant whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a folk medicine and as a spice. It´s a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of leaves) about a meter tall bearing narrow leaf blades.

Pitahaya, pitahaya or dragon fruit - It´s the fruit of several cactus species. The shell is a purplish green or yellow. The pulp of the pitahaya contains small black seeds. Its aroma is lost when it is heated. Red pitahayas have pulp white or red; those of red pulp are more difficult to grow and therefore less frequent, although their flavor is more intense than that of white pulp. Dragon fruit is a healthy fruit, which is low in calories and rich in antioxidants and can be added to any drinks.

Tuno - It´s a species of cactus that has long been a domesticated crop plant important in agricultural economies. The name "tuna" is also used for the fruit of this cactus. The cactus pads are low in dry matter and crude protein, but useful as a supplement in drought conditions. In addition to the food value, the moisture content adequately eliminates watering the cattle and the human effort in achieving that chore.

Tuno indio - It´s the cactus fruit with more minerals and vitamins. Are used to make smoothies, jam and desserts. Peeling a tuno without spines and good wash before peeling, just in case.

Redcurrant - It´s a deciduous shrub. The tart flavour of redcurrant fruit is slightly greater than its blackcurrant relative but with the same approximate sweetness. Although frequently cultivated for jams and cooked preparations, much like the white currant, it is often served raw or as a simple accompaniment in salads, garnishes, or drinks.

Pomegranate - It´s a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree. The pomegranate has multiple spiny branches and is extremely long-lived. Botanically, the edible fruit is a berry with seeds and pulp produced from the ovary of a single flower. The fruit is intermediate in size between a lemon and a grapefruit. the juice obtained by compressing the arils and seeds yields a sour flavor. After the pomegranate is opened by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the seeds are separated from the peel and internal white pulp membranes. Grenadine syrup long ago consisted of thickened and sweetened pomegranate juice, now is usually a sales name for a syrup based on various berries, citric acid, and food coloring, mainly used in drinks mixing.

Pasion fruit - It´s cultivated for its sweet, seedy fruit. The passion fruit is a pepo, a type of berry, round to oval, either yellow or dark purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous seeds. The fruit is both eaten and juiced; passion fruit juice is often added to other fruit juices to enhance aroma.

The grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) - it´s a subtropical citrus tree known for its sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. Grapefruit is a hybrid as an accidental cross between two introduced species, sweet orange and shaddock. it´s one of the substances which has a strong influence on the taste and odor of grapefruit, compared with other citrus fruits.
Grapefruit are often cooked to remove their sourness, rendering them as sweets, resulting in a dessert, used primarily for its juice but also is used to make jam.

Mango - It´s a juicy stone fruit. Mangoes are generally sweet, although the taste and texture of the flesh varies across cultivars; some have a soft, pulpy texture. Mangoes are widely used in cuisine. Mango is used to make juices, smoothies, ice cream, fruit bars and sweet chili sauce, or mixed with chamoy, a sweet and spicy chili paste. It is popular on a stick dipped in hot chili powder and salt or as a main ingredient in fresh fruit combinations.

Locuat - It´s a species of flowering plant. Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3-5 centimetres (1-2 in) long, with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, sometimes red-blushed skin. The succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to subacid or acid. The skin, though thin, can be peeled off manually if the fruit is ripe. The fruits are the sweetest when soft and orange. The flavour is a mixture of peach, citrus and mild mango. The loquat has a high sugar, acid, and pectin. It is eaten as a fresh fruit and mixes well with other fruits in fresh fruit salads or fruit cups. The fruits are also commonly used to make jam, jelly, and chutney, and are often served poached in light syrup. The drinks are prepared from varieties that contain only small quantities. The loquat is low in saturated fat and sodium, and is high in vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, and manganese.

Physalis - Is a genus of flowering plants growing to 0.4 to 3 m tall. A physalis is a small round orange berry in a papery outer covering. It's part of the nightshade family of plants which, apart from the deadly variety also includes tomatoes, potatoes and aubergines. Botanically then the physalis is closer to the tomato than to the gooseberry, but it has a sweet-sour taste somewhere between the two. It adds an extra depth of flavour and interest when chopped and added to a tomato sauce or alternatively it's also very good dipped in melted chocolate and served after dinner with coffee. It looks interesting and exotic as a garnish for all kinds of drinks.

Pineapple - It´s a tropical plant with an edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries, also called pineapples.The flesh and juice of the pineapple are used in cuisines. Pineapple is prepared and sold on roadsides as a snack. The juice of the pineapple is served as a drink.