What is a chiffonade?

by Cookthink

"Chiffonade" sounds like a fancy hair style circa-1964. It's not. Translated from French, it means "made of rags." In cooking, chiffonade is a technique for slicing herbs and leafy vegetables into long, thin strips. This method is especially useful for cooking tougher greens like kale and chard, which can be hard to chew when left in bigger pieces. To chiffonade something -- cabbage, for example -- stack and/or roll the leaves and then slice them into thin ribbons.