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Cooking With Cilantro: Washing, Stems, Timing and How Much to Use

By · Reviewed · 12 sources

Cooking with Cilantro

One extension pico de gallo recipe uses a full cup of cilantro to six tomatoes, and that tells you most of what you need to know: cilantro is best raw or barely heated, so add it at the end and don’t be stingy. Don’t toss the stems, either. America’s Test Kitchen’s tasters found them similar to the leaves but more potent.1 Cilantro is also one of the few herbs a sizable share of people actively dislike, partly for genetic reasons. For the plant and its chemistry, see the cilantro profile.

Quick guide

DoWhy, per the sources
Use it raw or add it at the endFlavor drops with heat (NDSU); add at the very end (Wisconsin); a minute or two before cooking ends (LSU)234
Use the stemsSimilar in flavor to the leaves but more potent (ATK)1
Rinse gently, then dry wellIllinois Extension’s pico de gallo recipe says to rub produce under cool running water; ATK dries delicate herbs in a towel-lined salad spinner56
Use it in quantityA cup of leaves to six tomatoes in Illinois Extension’s pico de gallo5
Prefer fresh to driedATK lists cilantro among herbs that are better fresh7

Washing

Cilantro bunches can hide grit between the stems, so most cooks rinse them, rubbing gently under cool running water. UMass Extension, writing about herbs headed for the freezer, suggests washing gently and only if needed, since water can carry off some of the herb’s oils.8 Dry the leaves before you chop; a salad spinner lined with paper towels works well. Wet leaves clump on the knife and turn to paste more easily.

Grit is one thing; food safety is another. The FDA has had an import alert on fresh cilantro from Puebla, Mexico, after recurring cyclosporiasis outbreaks between 2012 and 2015. It applies to shipments offered from April 1 through August 31 each year.9

Use the stems

Keep the tender upper stems. America’s Test Kitchen notes that both leaves and stems are widely used in Asian and South American cooking, and its tasters found the stems similar in flavor to the leaves but more potent.1 Chop them fine with the leaves for salsas, chutneys and green sauces, or put them in a cooked base where the leaves would wilt to nothing. Trim the thick, woody stems at the bottom of the bunch. That’s about texture.

The roots carry cilantro’s aroma too, and the taproots are eaten as a vegetable in China and Thailand. If you find bunches with roots attached, those are usable too.

When to add it

Heat is the main thing to manage. Cilantro’s flavor drops when it’s heated or dried. It’s one of the delicate herbs that should go in a minute or two before cooking ends, or get sprinkled on just before serving, so it doesn’t overcook.

In practice: stir it into a curry or soup off the heat, scatter it over tacos and rice at the table, and fold it into raw salsas and salads. In a cooked dish, the stems can go in a little before the leaves.

How much to use

Think handfuls, not pinches. The leaves, and whole young plants, are popular both as an herb and as a vegetable.

Ratio (Attributed): Illinois Extension’s pico de gallo uses 1 cup of chopped fresh cilantro leaves with 6 Roma tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 1 tablespoon of lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, plus an optional green chile or jalapeño.5 That’s a generous share of herb, and a handy benchmark for raw salsas.

Ratio (Method): For a pot of curry, dal or soup serving four, try finishing with a small handful (a few tablespoons, chopped) and put more on the table. If cilantro tastes like soap to you, you’ll want less or none (more on that below).

What to cook with it

  • Mexican and Latin American food. Cilantro often goes into Mexican salsas and meat dishes. Pico de gallo, guacamole and taco toppings are the familiar uses.
  • Indian and Arabic cooking. Arabic cooking uses both the leaves and the seeds in pickles, curries and chutneys, and the leaf goes into chutneys and soups. In Indian cooking it’s a standard finishing herb for curries and dals.
  • Chinese and Southeast Asian food. It’s common in Chinese dishes, and the roots are eaten as a vegetable in China and Thailand.

When cilantro tastes like soap

Some people find cilantro soapy, and that’s partly genetic. A study of 14,604 people of European ancestry tied it to a variant near a cluster of smell-receptor genes, though genes explained only a small share of who tastes soap.10 Cooking for a group? Serve the cilantro on the side. If a dish already has too much, see too much cilantro.

Fresh, dried and frozen

America’s Test Kitchen lists cilantro among the herbs that are better fresh, because delicate herbs like it are much weaker once dried.7 Freezing does better: UMass Extension names cilantro among the herbs that keep their flavor best frozen.8 See dried vs. fresh cilantro, can you freeze cilantro and how to dry cilantro.

Keeping it fresh until you cook

Wisconsin Extension says cut leaves keep in the fridge for about a week,3 and wrapping the fresh leaves loosely in a slightly damp paper towel helps. For jars vs. bags vs. towels, see how to store cilantro.

Footnotes

  1. “Can You Eat Cilantro Stems?”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. “Field to Fork: Cilantro” (FN1933), NDSU Extension. ag.ndsu.edu · Reference work ↩

  3. Susan Mahr, “Cilantro”, Wisconsin Master Gardener Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, 2017. mastergardener.extension.wisc.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2

  4. “Flavorful Herbs”, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com · Reference work ↩

  5. “Pico de Gallo”, University of Illinois Extension, Eat. Move. Save. eat-move-save.extension.illinois.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Liz Bomze, “Our Guide to Fresh Herbs”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2019. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

  7. Danielle Lapierre, “When You Should Actually Use Dried Herbs (and Which Ones to Avoid)”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2022. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2

  8. Jodie Gilson, “Herb Preservation”, UMass Amherst Extension. umass.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2

  9. Import Alert 24-23, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. accessdata.fda.gov · Regulator ↩

  10. Eriksson et al., “A genetic variant near olfactory receptor genes influences cilantro preference”, Flavour, 2012. link.springer.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

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