Chiffonade
[shif·uh·nahd] • French(n.) a preperation of shredded or finely cut herbs or leaf vegetables.
Pronounced shif-uh-nahd, chiffonade is a culinary preparation of herbs, leaves and even other ingredients and foods that can be rolled and then sliced into thin ribbons or strips.
Chiffonade Meaning
From the French words chiffonner, meaning to crumple, and chiffon, meaning rag or cloth, a chiffonade is typically a fresh garnish added to a finished dish, like pasta, or a topping for a base like soup or pizza. The chiffonade cut lets you slice a large volume of herbs quickly and with minimal effort, and reduces the cooking time of leafy greens considerably.
Ingredients and foods that can be cut chiffonade include:
Herbs – basil, mint, sage, sorrel
Greens – cabbage, chard, lettuce, shiso, spinach, Tuscan kale
Other ingredients and foods – beef tenderloin, crepes, leeks, omelettes, tortillas.
How to Chiffonade
You can chiffonade any of the above mentioned ingredients in the same way: stack, roll, slice, separate.
Stack: Neatly stack the leaves flat, from biggest on the bottom to smallest on top. It’s easier to do the next step if you stack them in a nested style so that the leaves are naturally pointing upwards.
Roll: Roll the stack of leaves from the long end into a tight, cigar-like shape, keeping the stack intact.
Slice: Using a sharp knife, and holding the roll together until the end, slice thin strips along the roll.
Separate: Gently separate the strips into mini ribbons.
Chiffonade Uses
This technique works best with herbs and leafy greens that have a flatter surface area and a consistent shape that can be rolled. It doesn’t work with herbs such as rosemary or thyme.
Use the chiffonade cut on ingredients that’ll be used fairly soon as the many cuts along the roll can cause the edges of the food, particularly herbs, to oxidise and darken quite quickly.
A chiffonade of mint can be used to flavour a pitcher of water, whereas basil strands can be used to top salads and pizzas. Chard chiffonade can be added to soups in the last few minutes of cooking, and thin ribbons of omelette are a standard in fried rice.
Recipes
1/6
Summer Tomato Spaghetti with Burrata
There’s lots and lots of fresh mint in this tomato and burrata pasta, and the fastest way to chop it up is to chiffonade it.
2/6
Chiffonade Salad
A cousin to the chopped salad, the chiffonade salad uses leafy greens and herbs that can be rolled and sliced into long, thin ribbons.
3/6
Roasted Butternut Squash
A yummy pumpkin side that uses a chiffonade of sage to make a sweet sauce.
4/6
Chicken Fried Rice with Sliced Egg Omelette
It’s not just leafy herbs and greens that can be sliced chiffonade. Anything that can be rolled, can be sliced into thin ribbons. Including an omelette.
5/6
Mixed Melon Salad with Ricotta Salata, Chili Pepper, Lime and Mint
When you’re going to use fresh herbs as a garnish, pick ones that you can chiffonade, so you have delicate ribbons of freshness and colour to your dish. This recipe is a perfect example.
6/6
Cucumber, Melon and Mint Sangria
Having chiffonade cut herbs in drinks is always nicer than a rough chop; just look at how pretty these are!
Got a favourite ingredient to chiffonade? Post it in the comments for me!
