Cilantro
Cilantro is a cool-weather herb. It bolts and turns bitter in July heat, and it comes back as the nights start to drop. September is the handoff: basil is on its way out, cilantro is on its way in, and this month's basket is built around the second one.
How to choose it
- Deep green leaves with no yellowing at the edges
- Stems firm, not limp or slimy at the cut
- No flower buds — a bunch that has bolted will taste soapy and thin
- Smell it. If it smells like nothing, it has been in a cooler too long
- A bunch with roots attached, if you can find one, keeps twice as long
Buy this much: 1 large bunch. You will use more of it than you expect, because the stems count.
One of the cheapest ingredients you can buy at any store. If a bunch looks tired, buy two — it costs almost nothing to be generous with it.
During the week
- Blended into salsa verde, stems included
- Torn over tacos and rice bowls
- Tossed into apple slaw with lime
- Over eggs in salsa verde
On a weekend
In the apple slaw and over the fish tacos — the only green thing on the plate, and it should be a lot of it.
One thing worth learning
The stems are not scraps. They carry more of the flavor than the leaves and none of the fragility, which is why they belong in anything blended or simmered while the leaves belong on top at the last second. Learning to split the bunch — stems into the blender, leaves into a bowl for later — is the whole technique, and it applies to parsley the same way.