**Separate the crushing from the chopping.** Garlic and dried chillies benefit from becoming a paste; the herbs can stay as distinct, finely cut pieces. You then need only a quick stir to combine them.

For batches of 8–12 servings, I’d use this workflow:

1. **Wash and thoroughly dry the herbs ahead of time.** A salad spinner helps. Remove tough stems, but don’t spend time picking every tender parsley or coriander leaf individually.
2. **Crush the chillies separately.** Grind a small supply in a spice grinder, or crush one batch in a mortar before adding anything wet.
3. **Make the garlic paste separately.** A garlic press removes the slicing step; a fine rasp grater also produces paste that mixes readily into the dressing. [Microplane’s blade guide](https://www.microplaneintl.com/en/blade-guide/coarse-blade)
4. **Chop the herbs in manageable handfuls.** Gather them into a compact bundle, slice across it, then make a few crosswise passes with a very sharp chef’s knife. Repeatedly working a large, loose mound adds time and bruises the leaves.
5. **Mix the garlic and chilli into your prepared liquid, then fold in the herbs.** If you want some crushed-herb character, briefly pound a small portion of the herbs with the garlic, leaving the remainder chopped.

A **mezzaluna—a curved, rocking herb knife—is worth considering** if ordinary knife work is your main bottleneck. It can mince a mound of herbs while letting you control the endpoint; it’s used specifically for sauces such as salsa verde. It isn’t necessarily faster than a sharp chef’s knife in practised hands. [Bon Appétit’s hands-on account](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/mezzaluna)

The biggest likely saving is eliminating the prolonged final crushing: get the garlic and spices to their finished texture first, and stop chopping the herbs as soon as they’re fine enough.