Harness the Power of Herbs for Mexican Cooking

There are two misconceptions you can let go of, thanks to chef Claudette Zepeda: that beans will make you gassy and that Mexican food is spicy just to be spicy.

“We are very aware of how herbs work in food,” the chef says while demonstrating her mother’s albondigas recipe, along with corn tortillas and arroz verde, at the 2024 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. “We add herbs to different flavors, especially with heat, to help unlock the spice. If chiles give you indigestion, we’ll add an herb to the food, and it actually starts to calm your stomach.”

She compares the balancing act to the Indian tradition of finishing meals with fennel seeds to settle stomachs.

“You should never have indigestion after eating Mexican food if it’s made by a grandma — because I guarantee you they added mint,” she says. “They added some sort of medicinal herb to help offset that.”

Zepeda uses epazote in her beans for the same effect, with the disclaimer that beans shouldn’t make anyone gassy when cooked properly.

“Add a little pinch to your beans and they are amazing, herbaceous, delicious, but they’re also good for your stomach,” says the San Diego-based chef behind Chispa Hospitality and two-time “Top Chef” competitor.

The Mexican tea plant can be purchased dry on Amazon and at retailers, or you can order epazote seeds to grow your own herbs, as Zepeda recommends. “Post-pandemic, everyone’s growing their own herbs. If you can have even a window sill garden, herbs are your friend,” she says.

To use more herbs in your cooking, start with cilantro, especially when making Mexican food like Zepeda’s. She loves the brightness and freshness that cilantro brings to her cooking, and adds that you can also achieve an easy balance with mint.

“Open your mind to making a tomatillo salsa with mint,” she says. “If you’re going to use serrano for a really spicy salsa, especially a raw tomatillo salsa, add a little bit of mint. You’ll feel the heat and then you’ll feel coolness.”

Zepeda also adds chopped cilantro and mint to her rice, folding in half a cup of chopped herbs with the rice, and then topping it with more herbs. She adds that herbs go especially well with jasmine rice, which she likes for its floral flavor notes.

Claudette Zepeda