The first time I made chimichurri was out of necessity – I had harvested handfuls of gorgeous Italian parsley, and after drying some, freezing some, and making a lot into parsley pesto, I had to do something else with what was leftover. A quick search in some recipe books I had, introduced me to a new favourite – chimichurri! Isn’t even the name just delicious to say!?
Basically, it is a raw sauce with loads of parsley, some garlic, oregnao, red pepper (chilli), olive oil and red wine vinegar. It does absolute wonders for grilled meat – and my favourite is to have it with steak. Honestly, I love steak for just being steak, and a good steak is great on its own, but chimichurri makes it even better. I promise. Even my husband who is not a great fan of parsley, loves this!
There’s many variations out there of this uncooked sauce, with every chef, and wannabe grill-master probably having their own special version. The recipe that follows is a very simple one, and my favourite to make.
Chimichurri sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed parsley, cleaned and dried (flat-leaf Italian parsley, or curly “fancy” parsley, or a combination of the two)
- 2 – 4 tablespoons oregano, cleaned and dried
- 3-5 medium cloves of garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or some chopped fresh red chilli (optional, to taste)
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Pulse the herbs and garlic in your blender until well chopped.
- Stir in the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
- Add the chilli if using, and mix through.
- Enjoy!
