How To Chop Herbs For Your Cooking

Packed with flavor and nutrients, herbs are a wonderful addition to any dish. Here’s how to chop herbs for your cooking!

To get the most that herbs have to offer, you must get them to release their oils. By chopping the herbs, you create more surfaces from which the oils may be released.

The best tool to chop herbs for cooking is a crinkle cutter. The cutter leaves more edges for the oils to escape than a knife will using the same number of cuts.

If a crinkle cutter is not in your tool drawer, use the sharpest blade in your butcher’s block. Sharpen your knife before chopping herbs. A sharp edge will ensure you are not crushing the herbs, which prematurely releases the oils.

Although food choppers are touted as a quick answer to prep-cooking, do not use a chopper to chop fresh or dried herbs. Fresh herbs are crushed, and dry herbs are crumbled into wasteful dust.

Herbs should be rolled before cutting, if the leaves are large enough. Be sure not to crush the herbs on the cutting board, as you will be wasting the most valuable part: The essential oil. Chop in a diagonal across the stems of the herbs and the veins of the leaves. A diagonal cut creates a larger opening for the oils to escape than cutting perpendicular to the veins.

Dried herbs still contain oils even though the water has been removed from the leaves and the stems. To release these oils, rub them gently between your fingers or the palms of your hands. Again, be careful not to crush them. The warmth created by the friction between your palms or your fingers will warm the oil, making it release from the herbs more quickly than cooking will. This release is necessary to infuse your cooking with the full flavor of the herbs throughout the cooking process.

If you are sauteing, the oil in your pan should be sufficient to draw out the remaining oils. If you are boiling, add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil for each quart of water in your pot. The oil will attract out, and mix with, the essential oils in the herbs. Extra virgin olive oil will not temper the flavor of the herb itself, but will act as a vehicle for thorough distribution in your dish.

When braising, grilling or roasting meats and vegetables, mix your chopped herbs with a light oil, such as safflower or light vegetable oil. Chop the herbs and allow them to rest in the oil for at least four hours before applying them to the meat or vegetables.

Adjust the fineness of your chop to coincide with the cooking time of the dish. If the cooking time is small, use a very fine chop. There will be little time for the oils to reach temperature and be release from the herbs. When using a long cooking time, such as a slow cooker or a long simmering stock pot, chop herbs into larger pieces or wait to put them into the dish until half of the cooking time has elapsed.

Fresh herbs should be torn loosely with your hands to be used as garnish on top of dishes and sauces to add the most fragrance and a multi-layered flavor of the herbs in different states: cooked and fresh.