Parsley and Coriander: winter salads
This is my first entry to the Weekend Herb Blog and I want to thank Scott at Real Epicurean for being our host and Kalyn at Kalyn’s Kitchen for being the creator and instigator.
I wish I could be more original for my first entry because I suspect parsley and coriander are the most popular herbs in the world. But with good reason. Harold McGee notes that Parsley and Coriander both belong to the Carrot Family. Parsley was first used for medicinal purposes by the Greeks and is included in Homer’s Odyssey as part of Circe’s lawn. The name derives from the Greek petroselinum which means rock-celery. Although in the U.S. it is used notoriously as a garnish, throughout the Middle East, India, and Africa it assumes the role of star in salads and as Persillade and Bouquet Garni in France.
The use of Coriander goes back to 5,000 B.C. Cilantro is the leafy herbage of Coriander. Its often used in Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Indian cuisine, and just about anywhere fusion has run amok. I add at least a pinch of Coriander anytime I use Cilantro, I think it boosts the flavor and negates any “soapiness”. Try it and see what you think.
In the winter, when our salad life is a vast plain of emptiness, we eat salads based on these herbs. I’ll combine almost anything with them: Cucumber, Daikon, Carrots, Avocado, Radish, Grapefruit, Scallions, Jalapeños, Green Apples. I always dress these salads with just Rice Vinegar right before I plate dinner and then by the time we’ve finished, the salad is perfectly mingled and ready to eat. GH jokes that without Parsley and Cilantro we would get probably get scurvy in the winter…but he is quite the cornball.
Illustrations from: Franz Eugen Koehler: Koehlers Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen und kurz erläuterndem Texte (1883-1914) Gera – Germany
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10 Responses to “Parsley and Coriander: winter salads”
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Those salads made me hungry. Hungry enough to convince myself to stop reading your blog, get off the couch, and make a cucumber salad, and that takes some convincing. I’ve never tried daikon, I’ll have to add that to my grocery list. The description at foodsubs sounds enticing. http://www.foodsubs.com/Roots.html
sounds like a nice combination. I use these 2 herbs a good amount too but not so much in combination. thanks for stopping by cooking chat, look foward to hearing about your leftovers!
I think I love your version of salad. I know what you mean about the lack of salad inspiration in the winter. I tend to overdo it on the cucumbers when there aren’t other things available. Love the idea of adding the rice vinegar and letting it mellow on the salad a bit.
I love your salad, and I especially love all the information you give about the herbs used in it. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for all the great comments. Herbs are so easy to work with and have a good clean taste.
Jacob, you can get good Daikon at Yue Wah on Park Street.
Cooking chat, I’m looking forward to Leftover Tuesday.
Kalyn, thanks for stopping by. Rice Vinegar is great on these type of salads.
Thanks Scott, you’re such a good host.
[...] Vanessa from What Geeks Eat with a delicious Winter Salad. I’m in the mood for salad right now – all this heavy winter food needs some relief, after all. The information provided on herbs in this article deserves serious praise, too. [...]
Great post. I like the salad–it looks so refreshing.
Thanks Sher, we eat some iteration of this salad almost every evening. I especially love it with avocado. Thanks for stopping by.
Ah, so there is a distinction between the words cilantro and coriander. I never knew that! Over here the herby bit is always labelled coriander too.
The salad looks lovely. I especially like the use of apple and grapefruit- it really sounds delicious.
What a lovely salad! And, I note, another fan of McGee’s books.