How to Cut Parsley

Cutting Parsley with a Knife

Wash your bunch of parsley in clean, cold water. As with any fresh produce you buy, you should wash it before using it. Fill a bowl with clean, cold water and dunk your parsley into it. Swish it around slightly and lift it out of the water. Any dirt or sand on the parsley should sink to the bottom of the water, leaving you with clean parsley. For the best results, pour your water out after your first wash and refill the bowl. Dunk and swish your parsley again, swapping out the water every time it starts looking dirty. When you can dunk the parsley in and the water remains clean, you’ll have perfectly clean parsley. You can also just run your parsley under a cold tap to wash it. Hold the parsley under the water and rotate it to make sure you wash every area. Don’t use hot or boiling water when cleaning parsley, as this will blanch it and remove some of the freshness that makes parsley delicious.

Dry your parsley. The less water there is on the parsley, the less likely your parsley is to stick to the knife as you cut it. Hold your parsley over the sink and shake it up and down a few times to get rid of as much water as you can. You can also dry your parsley in a salad spinner if you have one. If your parsley is still damp after shaking it off, use a few paper towels to pat it dry.

Pick the parsley leaves off of the stems. While the thinner stems higher up on the parsley won’t be noticeable amongst chopped parsley, thicker stems from lower down will be. Go through your parsley and remove the leaves from the stems, placing the picked parsley leaves on a nearby chopping board. The leftover parsley stems can be used in stocks and soups for a little extra flavor but will be too tough for most other dishes. If you won’t use them, put them in a compost bin or throw them away. If you’re not looking for very finely cut parsley, you can avoid picking the leaves off by carefully cutting them away from the thicker stems. With the parsley in a bunch, hold the stems so the leaves face away from your body. Use a sharp kitchen knife at a 30-degree angle to cut from the top of the stems through the leaves. Rotate the parsley and cut at the same angle again to strip away the leaves only.

Bunch the parsley together into a small mound. Use both hands to begin compressing the loose parsley leaves into a small mound. As you push them together, rotate and twist the mound of parsley to fold leaves in on themselves and keep them more tightly compressed. Use your non-dominant hand to hold the parsley in place as you chop it. Try and hold your hand in a claw-like position, with your fingers facing directly down into the parsley. This will keep your fingers safe from the knife blade as you cut through the parsley.

Pick up a sharp kitchen knife in your dominant hand. You should use a large knife when cutting herbs so that you can more easily run it through them with a single motion. Hold the knife in your dominant hand, with your grip close to the blade. Your index finger and thumb should sit on either side of the blade itself for extra stability. Always be careful when working with sharp knives, especially when cutting something that you need to be holding. Work slowly as you get a handle on the right grip and the right motions to avoid cutting yourself.

Slice through the parsley. With one hand on the knife and the other holding the mound of parsley in place, use the blade of the knife to begin slicing through the parsley. Start on one side of the mound around 1 centimetre (0.39 in) from the edge and run your knife through the parsley once. Push the cut parsley away from the mound and repeat, moving your knife over the parsley as you go. You should always use a gentle slicing motion when cutting parsley, as opposed to more harshly chopping it. Parsley will bruise quite easily, which could alter the flavor. In addition, the parsley won't look as good when you use it as a garnish.

Rock the knife back and forth to cut the parsley more finely. Press your parsley into a small pile once again. Keep holding your knife with your dominant hand, but lay your non-dominant hand flat across the top of the other end of the knife. Place the middle of the blade in the center of your parsley pile and rock it back and forth between your two hands to cut the parsley more finely. The knife should roll back and forth across the mid-point of the blade, letting you rotate and move it around while chopping the parsley. Keep doing this motion until the parsley is finely chopped or minced.

Finding Other Ways to Cut Parsley

Use herb scissors to quickly chop parsley. Herb scissors are a kitchen tool with several, evenly-spaced blades specially designed for cutting up small, fresh herbs. Wash and dry your parsley as you would when cutting with a knife and hold it by the stems in your non-dominant hand. Use the herb scissors to begin cutting through the parsley leaves, letting them drop into a bowl or onto a clean chopping board. As when cutting parsley by hand, make sure you cut only the parsley leaves and don’t get too much of the harder stems mixed in with your chopped parsley. Herb scissors should be available from your local cooking or homeware stores or can also be found online.

Chop parsley in a food processor to easily mince it. Wash, dry, and pick your parsley off of the stems. Place all of the leaves into the bowl of a food processor with a sharp blade attachment equipped. Put the lid on and let the food processor run at its highest speed. Stop every 10 seconds or so to scrape down the side of the processor and repeat until the parsley is at the desired consistency. This will bruise the parsley and release more moisture from it than when cutting with a knife. Use this method to very quickly chop parsley to be mixed into dishes, rather than preparing it for use as a garnish.

Place the parsley in a glass to keep it together while cutting. Pick your washed and dried parsley leaves off of the stems and place them into a glass. Use a pair of long kitchen shears or scissors to cut through the parsley sitting at the bottom of the glass, rotating and moving them around to cut all of it evenly. This will keep the parsley together as you cut it the first time. If you want to cut your parsley even finer, simply pour it out onto a cutting board and rock your knife back and forth through it to cut it further.