Topic · Knife Skills & Vegetable Cuts
Chiffonade Cut
Chiffonade is a French vegetable cut that is used on finely sliced or shredded green leafy vegetables or herbs, such as lettuce, spinach, mint, basil or sorrel. The final product is normally used as a base or garnish in soups.
Chiffonade comes from the French verb “chiffonner,” which means “to rumple”. I have seen some resources that translated it as “made of rags” which does not really make any sense to me.
It is recommended to cut chiffonades at the last minute so that the leaves keep their freshness.
Cutting a chiffonade
Wash and dry the leaves first.
Stack the leaves from the biggest to the smallest.
Roll them from toe to point like a cigar.
Slice into thin strips.
Greens with large, loose leaves, such as chard, can be rolled up and sliced thinly. Smaller leaves, such as basil, can be stacked, then rolled and sliced across the vein. For leaves with a central woody stem, such as Kaffir lime leaves, roll from tip to stem, slice parallel to the vein and discard the woody stem.
