Like most women around the world, I learned how to cook predominantly from my mother. An idea that often creatively inspired her was ‘waste not, want not’, which was also a motto for every middle-class Indian woman running her own kitchen. Decades later, the sustainable food and living movement has taken the same motto to heart, and is in turn inspiring millions of foodies and home cooks across the world to utilize every ingredient from ‘root to stem’. It’s a resourceful and creative idea indeed, but there are some ingredients that are often too overlooked to get the same treatment in Indian home kitchens. Coriander stem is definitely one such ingredient.
The Ultimate Indian Garnish Needs To Be Redefined
Growing up, I never saw my mother throw away coriander stems. It didn’t matter whether she was making a simple curry or a biryani, she would always chop up the entire coriander plant—stems, leaves and all—and add it to the dish. Naturally, I never believed coriander stems should be thrown out. And yet, when I cooked my first dish with my now mother-in-law, she just plucked out the leaves and was about to throw the stems out. My alarmed gasp stopped her, and she explained that she had always seen on television food shows that the chefs only garnish the dish with the coriander leaves. “I assumed that they just throw out the stems,” she said.
This is an easy assumption for viewers to make, and I have since seen Gen Z and millennial foodie friends making the same mistake. Those flared coriander leaves indeed work brilliantly as a garnish, and we Indians are used to topping most of our dishes with it. It’s equally easy to assume that you can’t use coriander stems in anything but coriander chutneys and Hariyali or Hara Bhara dishes. You couldn’t be more wrong.
Coriander Stems, The Flavour Bombs You Didn’t Know About
The fact is, the flavour of any ingredient is most intense closest to the roots. Just cut a coriander stem near the roots, give it a sniff, and you’ll believe it too. So, not using coriander stems is a huge flavour loss—not to mention the food waste involved. You might face inhibitions at first, but just chop those stems with the leaves and add it to the dish! You could also easily reserve the stems for the times when you are making soups, broths and chutneys. The only time you shouldn’t add coriander stems to a savoury dish is if the stems have turned tough, reddish or brown.
Now, if you’re worried about the ‘look’ of the dish, then the simplest way to include coriander stems in dishes is fine chopping the stems. This works brilliantly in curries and stir fry dishes, but you could also sneak in fine-chopped coriander stems in all sorts of snacks. I know from experience that adding fine-chopped coriander stems to any mayo, salsa, pasta sauce or dip also works brilliantly! As long as youwant to hit those savoury notes in a dish, coriander stems can be the secret ingredient that turns your home-cooked food into total flavour bombs. So, don’t miss out on it!