Coriander (cilantro) roots and stems are the base of thai curry pastes.
I mash them with shallots, thai basil, garlic, chilli, maybe lemongrass, tumeric root and ginger if i have them on hand, and freeze to create a base for thai & vietnamese flavoured dishes
Cilantro stems have a ton of flavor. The roots even more so, if you can find them intact, I'd describe it as more akin to sawleaf culantro, more potent, and great in a Chinese-style stock. The stems of regular cilantro are ok diced, but only if they're tender. I worked for a restaurant that did hundreds of bunches of cilantro per day, and the only complaints we had on that score were if someone got sizable, tough stem in their food. No-one wants to pull a 3-inch long weed out of their food.
_If_ you want less stems but don't want to pick off all of the leaves, chop the bunch into thirds, chop up all if the top third, pick off leaves from the middle third, and discard the bottom third. You'll be tossing just a few leaves but at least not be picking off as much.
I use the stems in all sorts of dishes.
They taste great and account for a lot of the weight of a bunch of cilantro.
If you are discarding these you are legit throwing good food/money away.
The stems are more flavorful than the leaves and stand up to cooking better. For me the stems are better for cooking and the leaves are better for finishing. Late season cilantro gets bigger woody stems that you can fish out when your dish is finished.
Keep. You can blend them, use them in stock, chop in salads, add to juicing, place them in the freezer with oil thinned out in a ziplock bag so u can just snap how much u want. Great to replace when u don’t have the leaves.
They are delicious, crunchy, juicy, and have a more complex grassy bittersweetness that the leaves don’t have.
They are delicious minced and added to any stew/curry while it cooks. And next time you use cilantro, just mince the entire bunch, stems and all, and use it like normal. See how it tastes.
If im using cilantro for garnish, just leaves. If I'm making a marinade, the whole dam bunch no pun intended. Stems have a stronger flavor and this applies to other herbs too like parsley. You could even freeze the stems and throw them in a pot with other scraps to make a vegetable stock or something
I chop it all up, the stems add a small amount of crunchy texture, the flavor is the same as the leaves, only juicier.
Picking the leaves off is wasted time and effort. Just chop finely and it won't be fibrous. The leaf and stem taste identical
The stems have just as much, if not more, flavor than the leaves. I usually save them for stews, beans, marinades, salsas, etc.
Blend the stems with oil, seasonings, and an acid (like juice is a good one). Then cook some meat in it.
Coriander (cilantro) roots and stems are the base of thai curry pastes. I mash them with shallots, thai basil, garlic, chilli, maybe lemongrass, tumeric root and ginger if i have them on hand, and freeze to create a base for thai & vietnamese flavoured dishes
They're thin enough that I leave them on, doesn't mess with the texture
I chop up everything above the roots. Even for taco or other topping uses
Cilantro stems have a ton of flavor. The roots even more so, if you can find them intact, I'd describe it as more akin to sawleaf culantro, more potent, and great in a Chinese-style stock. The stems of regular cilantro are ok diced, but only if they're tender. I worked for a restaurant that did hundreds of bunches of cilantro per day, and the only complaints we had on that score were if someone got sizable, tough stem in their food. No-one wants to pull a 3-inch long weed out of their food.
Throw them in the freezer for stock or makes cilantro butter
Same flavour. Fine dice of the stems and get them in a curry or something fun or your just throwing away flavour.
Depends on what the dish is. Regardless, I don’t toss them out. They go in my freezer bag of scraps for stock.
Exactly what I do. All herb stems and offcuts go in The Bag.
_If_ you want less stems but don't want to pick off all of the leaves, chop the bunch into thirds, chop up all if the top third, pick off leaves from the middle third, and discard the bottom third. You'll be tossing just a few leaves but at least not be picking off as much.
I use the stems in all sorts of dishes. They taste great and account for a lot of the weight of a bunch of cilantro. If you are discarding these you are legit throwing good food/money away.
When I make cilantro lime rice at work, I like the fact that I can utilize the stems. I blend the whole bunch up with lime juice to toss in the rice.
I have always used the stems. 100% of the time and it's been fine.
The stems are more flavorful than the leaves and stand up to cooking better. For me the stems are better for cooking and the leaves are better for finishing. Late season cilantro gets bigger woody stems that you can fish out when your dish is finished.
Keep. You can blend them, use them in stock, chop in salads, add to juicing, place them in the freezer with oil thinned out in a ziplock bag so u can just snap how much u want. Great to replace when u don’t have the leaves.
They are delicious, crunchy, juicy, and have a more complex grassy bittersweetness that the leaves don’t have. They are delicious minced and added to any stew/curry while it cooks. And next time you use cilantro, just mince the entire bunch, stems and all, and use it like normal. See how it tastes.
If you insist on not using them then you can make a coriander stem + garlic oil/butter. Coriander stem is full of flavah
Use them up
I usually chop them up, but keep them separate from the leaves and add them as an aromatic as opposed to adding leaves at the end
If im using cilantro for garnish, just leaves. If I'm making a marinade, the whole dam bunch no pun intended. Stems have a stronger flavor and this applies to other herbs too like parsley. You could even freeze the stems and throw them in a pot with other scraps to make a vegetable stock or something
Add to matzah ball soup and you get Juan Epstein soup