| Cilantro
(Coriandrum sativum) - Type: cool season annual
- Planting time: early spring, fall
- Features: pungent leaves, flavorful seeds
- Height: 12 to 24 inches
- Light: full sun
- Soil: light, moist but well drained
- Spacing: 12 to 18 inches
- Garden use: in containers, herb and flower gardens
- Culinary use: leaves and seeds for Latin American & Asian dishes
Also called Chinese parsley, cilantro leaves have a wonderful aroma that fills a room. It is the distinctive flavor in good, fresh salsa and is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean, and Asian cuisines. The leaves lend their flavor to salsas, curries, salads, chutneys, herbed butters, and meat marinades. Cilantro looks like parsley and grows in a rosette of stemmy leaves that are ready to harvest shortly after planting. It is a fast-growing annual, and the younger leaves tend to have better flavor. Cilantro is a member of the carrot family. Harvest the seeds, too. They are what you buy in spice jars as coriander, a common ingredient in Asian cooking. |