Fresh Herbs vs. Dried: Rach's Easy Conversion

If you're anything like Rachael, you always have fresh herbs on hand. (Have you seen her garden?) But not everyone does — and that's okay! Rach breaks down the dried herbs equivalent of fresh herbs.

Q: "I don't have fresh herbs and need to use dried herbs. I don't know how much to use. 
– Donna, viewer

Rach's answer: "[With] fresh herbs, [use] one tablespoon or your whole palm. I never measure anything. Marcella Hazan said it best. She said, 'Measuring to a cook is like putting a bird in a cage.' One scant palmful of fresh when you can find it and one teaspoon of dried is the equivalent."

Got that? 1 tablespoon or a scant palmful of fresh herbs = one teaspoon of dried herbs.

With that said, Rach will "never, ever" use the dried version of one herb—basil. "The one instance where I just will never use dry versus fresh is basil," Rach says. "Thyme, sage, parsley, oregano, in a pinch, certainly, I can use dry. And I love dried oregano from Sicily. It tastes completely different."