Don't throw away your coriander / cilantro / parsley stems

Are you throwing away your coriander stems?You are throwing away all your money and your flavor. There is such intense flavor in those stems.When you buy coriander,take a sniff at the stems and the leaves and I promise the stems will smell a heavenly coriander than the leaves and you will never throw them away again..

Some of us Indians, just use coriander for garnishing, but the small green leaves and stems can give us much more than garnishing, and some people doesn't know what to do with them and they rot in the fridge, I have been one of those and I also tried drying it out but they just don't cut it. Fresh coriander is the best.

Preserving coriander:
Coriander hates moisture and if there is moisture it starts to go bad.

• When you buy them put them in a jar half filled with water, just to cover the ends of the stem, this helps them to stay fresh, but use them on the same day.
• If you are not going to use it a day,put them in a airtight cover / zip lock and put them in the lower basket on the fridge.
• If you are not using it for a week, change the cover / zip lock every 2 days,to keep them fresh. after 2 days you can see the moisture built up inside the cover / zip lock. That's why we are changing it every 2 days or
• Put them in a air tight container and store them in fridge, every 2 days take the box out and wipe all the moisture built up in it and gain put them back in the box and back to the fridge or
• Make them into a paste or pesto and preserve them in the fridge for a week.( recipes of pesto and paste will be updated soon

Uses for the stems:

Use them when blending biriyani masala

Use them when grinding chutneys

Use them along with leaves when making pesto

Chop them finely and add it as garnish for your meat, it goes so well with meat.

My recipes with the stems:

White sesame chutney recipe where I have used the stems while blending the masala.
Cucumber stir fry with kimchi where I have used the stems for garnish

Coriander pesto recipe

Coriander paste ( will be updated)

Use stems add flavor to ur food and save money..