Cilantro keeps best if kept upright in a jar with water. Cover with a plastic bag and place the jar in the refrigerator, and don’t wash it until right before you use it. Keep in mind that you can use not only the leaves, but the stems as well since they are thin and tender enough to blend right in with any dish!
Cilantro is one of our largest crops here at Harmony Valley Farm. It is one of the first things we plant in the field in the spring, and don’t stop planting it until September. In the United States and Mexico, the part of the plant we grow it for is known as cilantro, but around the world the whole plant is called coriander; whereas here only the seeds that are used as a spice are called coriander. Cilantro is in the Apiaceae family, which also includes fennel, celery, caraway and parsley. Cilantro grows to be about 20 inches tall, and resembles bright green, flat leaf parsley. The flavor of cilantro is lemony and bright, however some people think it tastes soapy.
Cilantro is used extensively in Mexican, Middle Eastern, Indian and Asian dishes. The roots of the coriander plant are edible as well the leaves and stems, and are called for in some recipes. Before use, wash cilantro well and remove the leaves from the stems. If you are cooking with this herb, add it as the very last step just before serving, as cooking greatly diminishes the flavor. Cilantro does not keep its flavor well when dried, either, so fresh cilantro is always best.
Health & Nutrition: Beyond its renowned fragrance and its bright, citrusy flavor, cilantro is a powerhouse when it comes to medicinal properties. In Sarma Melngailis’s cookbook, Living Raw Food, she cites some of cilantro’s unique nutritional properties including one of its most unique features in supporting chelation. This process refers to cilantro’s ability-as a “substance that has a great molecular surface area and a negative ionic charge”-to essentially remove various toxins, heavy metals, molds, yeast, and fungi from our bodies. This is an especially important property for those of us who reside in urban areas and are exposed to a number of airborne pollutants on a regular basis. Beyond its work as a chelator, cilantro is also an excellent source of zinc, thiamin, dietary fiber, and vitamins A, C, E, and K–just to name a few.
Cultural & Historical Background: Thought to have originated in Greece, cilantro’s culinary history spans millennia. According to Lynda Balslev, writing for a 2010 National Public Radio article, coriander seeds were found in 8,000 year old caves in Israel, are referred to in the Bible and in ancient Sanskrit texts, and were even sprinkled across the floor of King Tut’s tomb. It wasn’t until the 1600s that these seeds made their way to the Americas, but today, cilantro is widely used throughout the American Southwest, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as in parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Additional Fun Facts: Though they come from the same plant, coriander seeds and cilantro have entirely different flavor profiles.
Think cilantro tastes like dish soap? There is a gene that 3-21% of people have that is picking up on certain aldehydes (or chemical compounds) in the cilantro that are also used in many soaps and detergents.
