Recently, I've bought a bunch of chinese parsley which I've used for garnishing and etc... However after storing it in the fridge for about 3-4 days most of the parsley had turned yellow and I have to throw them out. I was wondering does wrapping it with paper towels actually extends its life? Or rather, what is the best way to store chinese parsley?
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4Possible duplicate of How to Store Fresh Herbs– CindyAug 12, 2019 at 8:44
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3 Answers
Chinese Parsley == Coriander [UK] == Cilantro [US]
It will store for up to a week if it started crispy-fresh & you put it in the salad chiller in a fridge. Paper rather than plastic will prevent it 'sweating' [which will make it turn yellow or just rot with remarkable alacrity] but it will then dry out instead, so your gain may not be great.
The best way to ensure its survival is either
put it in a bowl of ice-cold water for an hour every day, then drain it thoroughly, pat dry & back in the fridge, or
buy it growing rather than cut, keep the compost moist & the pot in good direct daylight.
It's not the most hardy of herbs [certainly not in my North London flat], so your gains may not be great. I can keep some supermarket potted herbs going indefinitely but coriander isn't one of them.
Note: if your supplier is a local market as opposed to a national chain supermarket then it may not arrive 'crispy-fresh'… though it may actually taste better… which is the conundrum where I live - buy too much & it's a bit limp [but crisps up fabulously in cold water] from the local Turkish place, or just enough from the supermarket, but you can hardly smell it...
The way my parents always did it is to cut it up and then freeze it. Whenever you need some just take the box out, crumble a bit of the frozen parsley into whatever you need it for, then put the box back in the freezer.
Obviously it won't be fresh, so I suggest you only cut the amount that you don't think you'll be able to use before it goes bad, and keep the rest in the fridge, maybe with ice water as per Tetsujin's suggestion. But it does keep basically forever while frozen.
If you dry it after washing it, it will keep for a few weeks in the 'fridge. I don't mean dried like dry herbs, just get all the water off, with a salad spinner or paper towels.
