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.
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.
- 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
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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.
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Can be frozen.
Adapted from The Food Hound
