Chimichurri

We have an AMAZING home garden growing this summer – which is not usually the case here in New England! Our growing season is very short here in Massachusetts and living near the coast, our soil is mostly sand which is not at all conducive to growing vegetables. So the success of our garden has been hit-or-miss in years past (and mostly miss)!

But this year has been different!

Every evening after work, my husband Jack ventures out to our back yard to check on the garden and to pick whatever garden treasures he finds – and this year’s crop of zucchini and other squash, beans, tomatoes , and herbs has been fantastic! Last week, Jack came in with two GIANT handfuls of Italian flat leaf parsley. We always have some growing (we use it in tons of recipes) and this year, we can’t use it fast enough!

So what do you make with tons of fresh picked parsley? We made Chimichurri!

Chimichurri is a green sauce originating in Argentina. It is made from a generous amount of flat leaf parsley, garlic, oregano and vinegar – plus other ingredients can be added to change up the flavors a bit as we do in our recipe today.

It has a bright fresh flavor, and Chimichurri is probably best known as a sauce served with grilled steaks. But Chimichurri is also often used as a marinade on less tender cuts of beef. (Or in the case of the Certified Angus Beef ribeye steak you see here, we simply brushed on some of the chimichurri before grilling to add some flavor – it’s such a tender cut of beef, we didn’t need to marinate the steak before grilling.)

Disclosure: Our friends at Certified Angus Beef provided us with complimentary steaks for recipe development.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Chimichurri

• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 15 mins
• Yield: 1 1/2 cups

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Ingredients

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons minced shallots
• 2 tablespoons minced jalapeno or Serrano pepper stemmed and seeded
• 2 cups fresh Italian flat leaf parsley with stems removed
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (don’t use dried oregano)
• ½ cup good quality extra virgin olive oil

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Instructions

1. Place vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic, shallots and jalapeno pepper into a small bowl and let sit for ten minutes.
2. Place parsley and oregano in a food processor and cover with ingredients from the small bowl. Cover and turn on processor.
3. Slowly add in the olive oil until a pesto-like consistency forms.
4. Use as a marinade for meats or use as a sauce to serve over cooked meats but never marinate raw meat then use that same marinade to serve over the cooked meat. Always keep separate.

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