Parsley: More Than a Garnish

Parsley gets treated as decoration, pushed to the side of the plate and left there. In my kitchen it does actual work, and the difference between using it well and using it as a garnish is significant.

Flat-leaf, not curly

Flat-leaf parsley — Italian parsley — has real flavor: green, slightly peppery, clean. Curly parsley is mostly texture and very little taste, which is why it ended up as a garnish in the first place.

Buy flat-leaf and use it as an ingredient.

Use the stems

The stems carry more flavor than the leaves and they hold up to long cooking. Tie them into a bouquet garni for stocks and braises, or chop them finely and cook them with the onions at the start of a dish.

Keep the leaves for finishing. That way one bunch does two jobs.

Add it at the end

Parsley loses everything to heat. Cooked for more than a minute or two it goes dull and grassy, and the bright note you wanted disappears.

Stir chopped parsley in off the heat, or scatter it over the finished plate.

Chop it properly

Dry the leaves thoroughly before chopping. Wet parsley bruises under the knife, turns dark and clumps into a wet mass.

Use a sharp knife and chop rather than mince. Over-chopped parsley bleeds its oils onto the board — which is where the flavor you paid for ends up.

Where it does the most work

Tabbouleh, where it is the main ingredient rather than a seasoning. Chimichurri. Salsa verde. Gremolata — parsley, lemon zest and garlic, scattered over braised lamb or osso buco at the table.

Persillade, which is just parsley and garlic chopped together, added to almost anything at the last second.

And in Turkish cooking, in nearly every meze and every köfte mixture there is.

How to keep it alive

Stand the bunch in a glass with an inch of water, stems down, cover the leaves loosely with a plastic bag, and refrigerate. Change the water every few days.

Treated this way it stays crisp for two weeks instead of going limp in three days.

On breath

The old habit of chewing parsley after a meal is real, and it works better than most things — the chlorophyll and the volatile oils both play a part.

A few leaves after garlic is a genuinely useful trick, and considerably cheaper than gum.