Chiffonade

A chiffonade can be used with any leafy ingredient, and results in slender ribbons that you can use for a garnish. Or, you can rotate the cutting board, or your knife position, to chop the ribbons crosswise for the chop size of your choosing. Using a dull knife to chiffonade herbs risks leaving half their flavor on your cutting board, thus removing half of the reason you cook with them in the first place. You can tell how much flavor you’ve lost by how much delicious green oil and residue is left on your cutting board. A sharp blade and a proper chiffonade will reduce both the time it takes to chop the herbs and the amount of oil accidentally extracted by your cutting process. For herbs and greens, there are just two steps: