Cilantro and Culantro

Question

Help! I have a recipe that calls for cilantro and culantro. I have made this recipe a few times now. But now the city I live in there is only 3 spanish stores. I can fine cilantro all day long, but when I ask for culanto ,they want to give me more cilantro. My question is, Is culantro have other names in other places. In the Penn state, it is culantro, but in Ind. state, nobody knows what I am asking for. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Cyndee,

It is not uncommon to have people mistake culantro for its cousin cilantro (coriander).

Here are some terms that may help in Spanish

Culantro, culantro cimarrón, racao, recao

In English you might try asking for

Mexican coriander, wide/long leaf coriander or spiny coriander

You might want to have a look at this article that claims that there are (and lists some of these) at least 67 common names for culantro

Thanks. That was useful information for me also. - gloriadean, OCT 14, 2009

Your welcome - Izanoni1, OCT 14, 2009

Thank you - 0021954c, OCT 14, 2009