Condiment, Recipe

How To Make Chimichurri

I have “that” gene. The one that makes cilantro taste like soap (or really, more like something you should spit out). My husband says I’m a genetic freak. I say his tastebuds are broken (how else can you explain how he can’t taste how foul that is?). Regardless, I’ve seen chimichurri sauces before and avoided them because I feared the cilantro.

A few months ago, while out with friends we got a tostada from a fancy artisanal Spanish food street vendor which was drizzled with chimichurri.  IT WAS FABULOUS!  Not once did I feel like I needed to spit it out.  Immediately after I got home I started looking for a chimichurri recipe to reproduce it.  Happily I found a lovely recipe(site no longer available) which did not use cilantro.  I’ve made this a few times and each time found that it was a little bit too heavy on the salt.  In the recipe below I cut the salt back by half.  Add to that, I rarely have fancy vinegar in my cupboard.  I’ve found simple apple cider vinegar works for my needs.

I love my food processor, but I hate cleaning it off.  I especially hate hauling it out and then having to clean it off to make barely two cups of sauce.  I’ve tried making this in my bullet blender.  It works but I feel that it chops everything a bit more fine than I’d like.  It’s not quite a puree but it’s close.  It works, but I’m toying with the idea of using my pestle to make the next batch.

Silicone Ice Tray

As I mentioned, this makes about 2 cups of sauce.  Happily it freezes very well. I store it in a silicone ice cube tray and freeze these in ~4 ounce portions.  One portion is normally enough for all the drizzling I’d need for a meal.  I simply pop it out into a glass bowl and microwave it.

Chimichurri
Prep Time
10 mins
Total Time
10 mins
 
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: Argentinian
Servings: 12
Ingredients
  • 2 cups packed Italian flat-leaf parsley
  • ¼ cup packed fresh oregano
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp freshly-ground black pepper
  • ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. Chop herbs fine. Add all the rest of the ingredients and whir it up in a food processor, bullet blender or mortar and pestle. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving.
  2. Can be frozen.
Recipe Notes

Adapted from The Food Hound