In this picture I used the chimicurri sauce for a delicous lamb shank
Chimichurri Sauce is something I’ve started using a LOT lately, and I’ve noticed it’s increasing in popularity within the restaurants. Lucky for us it’s super simple to make…
There are a number of ways to make and prepare this amazing sauce. Some recipes yield a bright red sauce, some call for a food processor while others call for a fine chop. This is an Argentinian based sauce and to prepare mine I used a food processor and it came out as a bright and vibrant green sauce. This is a completely raw and perfect for just about any sensible diet… notice I said sensible, so not the low fat diet... Get out of here with that.
This is an olive oil and red wine vinegar based sauce. Both of which are very healthy for you. Olive oil, as we have known for a long time, is rich in healthy monounsaturated fats. Primarily Oleic Acid which is known to be anti-inflammatory and loaded with antioxidants. Raw olive oil is known to help combat many diseases from diabetes to cancer to Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s. (1-3)
Red Wine Vinegar is no slouch either. There are many healthy properties associated with red wine vinegar one of the most notable is the ability to aid in weight loss. Red Wine Vinegar has high amounts of acetic acid, which reduces ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Reduced ghrelin will suppress appetite and tell your brain that you’re not hungry. Also, red wine vinegar contains anthocyanin, an antioxidant that has been shown to kill cancer cells and have anti-aging properties. (4)
Now, here’s my issue with a lot of the recipes I’ve seen in cookbooks and websites they all tend to say something that, well frankly, just isn’t true:
Chimichurri will lose it's color within a day or two therefore it goes bad in a few days.
Wrong. In order to maintain that bright vibrant green color that chimichurri is commonly known it should be consumed within a day or two, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad afterward. This is a vinegar based sauce. Vinegar makes things last LONGER! Have you ever heard the old trick about berries? Give them a vinegar wash to kill bacteria so they last longer. Well… what do you think it does to the leaves in the sauce?? It makes them last longer! They won’t maintain color, but the flavor will actually mellow out and age really well. I have a jar in my fridge that’s about a week old and it still tastes amazing.
On to the good stuff.
The Ingredients…
- 1 cup packed cilantro
- 1 cup packed parsley
- 1 cup Olive Oil
- ⅓ cup Red Wine Vinegar
- ½ a medium Lemon Juice squeezed
- 2 teaspoons Oregano
- 4 cloves Garlic
- ¼ teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper (more if you like spicy)
- ¼ teaspoon Cumin
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Pepper
The Steps…
Ready for this? These completely raw sauces are tough ones…
- Add all of your ingredients except olive oil to the food processor and blend
- Add olive oil in slowly until desired
This is all a matter of preference really. That is the beautiful thing about cooking, it’s ultimately up to YOU. There are a billion chimichurri recipes on the internet, we’re not reinventing the wheel here. Personally I think the sauce has a much better look when the leaves are finely chopped and mixed with the red pepper flakes will make for a nice contrast of the green and red within the sauce. The processor is the lazy man’s way, but it saves time and I’m all about that
If you don't have a processor:
Chop your cilantro and parsley up to a fine pepper flake size
Mix all ingredients into a bowl and thoroughly mix. Done!
