Neither Parsley Nor Basil: The One Herb You Should Never Leave The Grocery Store Without

Herbs are a major part of my life. As a culinary school graduate, former line cook at farm-to-table Michelin star restaurant Gramercy Tavern, and now private chef and culinary producer in Los Angeles (not to mention a restaurant enthusiast), I have dabbled in almost every cuisine under the sun. One general ingredient that I firmly believe most dishes are incomplete without is herbs. Fresh, vibrant, fragrant, and tender, nothing quite breathes more life into a plate of food than an herb, and usually a variety of them. But if for some reason I could only bring one home from the grocery store, I would absolutely choose cilantro. 

The thought of having to select only one herb is akin to picking a favorite child, and I must apologize to all of you who can't stand the taste of the herb. Still, cilantro would be the one herb I could not live without (although in fairness, I'd be devastated to lose access to a wide variety of herbs). While I absolutely adore basil, and was distraught when having to choose between the two, cilantro is an herb that is, without fail, always stocked in my produce drawer of my refrigerator (thoroughly washed and wrapped in paper towels to extend the freshness). I reach for it multiple times per week when cooking dinners at home, if not more often, and it's absolutely the most frequently-used herb in my kitchen. It's also the most used herb of my fellow culinary professional friends to whom I posed the single-herb question.

Cilantro is used in an extraordinary amount of global cuisines, and it's one of the most popular herbs in America. Also known as coriander in some parts of the world, cilantro is prevalent in Mexican and Central and South American cooking, Southeast Asian cuisine like Thai and Vietnamese, and Indian and Chinese food, not to mention Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Eastern European, and North African cooking. It's difficult to imagine a world without cilantro in it, and I'm glad that I don't have to. Not only used as a garnish, cilantro is widely seen in sauces and condiments like salsa, mojo, chermoula, chimichurri, chutney, and zhug.

Cilantro is such an essential herb in so many cuisines that I can't imagine not having access to it in my kitchen at all times. Unless I'm cooking Italian or Korean food, which are part of a group of a few cuisines that rarely use the herb, cilantro is necessary for almost any other type of food I cook at home. The beauty of cilantro is that the entire plant is edible, not just the leaves, and the tender stems should never be thrown out. Not only is cilantro a delicious herb, but it also gifts us with coriander seeds, another one of my favorite spices to use. While I hope you never have to make the devastating choice of choosing one herb over another, if you only had the space or budget for one herb, it must be cilantro.