You can chop herbs on a board with the ‘rocking knife’ technique we show in our tip on how to chop garlic and chillies. But we find it quicker and easier to cut most herbs with scissors. This technique works for most green herbs, and indeed other small items you want to chop fine.
Jake sticks his nose in
The one key exception that you shouldn’t use this method for is basil. Fresh basil is best torn into the dish at the last minute.
Frist pick the leaves from your herbs into a mug or small bowl and discard the stems. You don’t need to be too precise about this if the stems are fleshy, like for parsley and coriander – some stem in the mix won’t matter – but if your herb is woody, like rosemary or thyme, you’ll need to strip the leaves off carefully.
Now take your scissors and snip downwards into the herbs. Occasionally ‘ruffle’ the herbs up with the scissors to make sure any unchopped leaves from the bottom are captured. You can also shake the mug from side to side to bring unchopped leaves to the surface.
Keep going until your herbs are finely chopped. It’s as easy as that!
