Adding fresh herbs to your cooking has never been easier with this quick hack.
Many of us probably have a kitchen cupboard stocked with spices and dried herbs that we can throw into our cooking whenever we need them, but there’s nothing quite like making a dish with some fragrant fresh herbs.
Whether you’re cooking fish and want to add some parsley on top, or you’re thinking of topping a pasta dish with some basil leaves or garnishing a curry with coriander, the use case for herbs in cooking is endless.
However, cooking with herbs means having one annoying task ahead of you – stripping the leaves away from the stalks. In most cases, you only want to add the leaves to your cooking, meaning you often need to stand in the kitchen for minutes picking the leaves off one by one.
But it turns out there is an easier way to strip your herbs in seconds. All you need is one kitchen appliance you already have in your cupboard, but probably never thought to use.
According to a TikTok video from a man named Anthony, the one appliance you need to use if you want to make your herb-stripping process a breeze is your cheese grater.
It might sound odd, but it turns out the holes in a cheese grater are perfect for tearing off herb leaves in seconds.
Anthony’s video shows him pushing the stem of parsley through one of the holes in his cheese grater, so that the leaves are still sticking out but the stem is on the inside of the grater.
Then, he takes hold of the bottom of the stem and pulls it further through the grater. This causes the leaves to get chopped off by the sharp blade at the edge of the grater hole, while the stem slips through, completely separating it from the leaves.
You can then simply pick up the leaves and add them directly to your dish, or place them on a chopping board if they need to be finely chopped before using.
Commenters on the video were blown away, with many saying they had no idea the trick existed.
One person said: “I definitely need to get a cheese grater!”
As another added: “I don’t eat cheese but maybe now I need a cheese grater.”
This hack is easy for people who already have a cheese grater at home, but if you aren’t a cheese lover and don’t already own one, you may benefit from picking up herb scissors or a dedicated herb stripper instead. These can be purchased on Amazon for around £7.
