Giardiniera Chimichurri Sauce
Giardiniera Chimichurri Sauce is filled with beautiful colors and flavors that pair wonderfully with a wide variety of meats and vegetables. The ingredients are fairly simple and can easily be adjusted to suit your tastes. If you like vibrant flavors, you’re going to love this!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup mild/extra light virgin olive oil*
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt + more to taste
- red pepper flakes - to taste (optional)
- 1½ - 2 tablespoons garlic - pressed or finely chopped (3 to 4 cloves)
- 3 tablespoons of shallots - finely chopped (1 large or 2 smaller)
- 2 – 3 tablespoons canned green jalapenos - finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons canned carrots - from canned jalapenos, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons red sweet pepper - finely chopped (1 mini pepper)
- 2 tablespoons orange sweet pepper - finely chopped (1 mini pepper)
- 2 tablespoons yellow sweet pepper - finely chopped (1 mini pepper)
- 2 cups fresh cilantro - finely chopped, loosely packed (1 large or 2 small bunches)
- 1 cup parsley – curly and/or flat leaf - finely chopped, loosely packed (½ - 1 bunch)
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano - finely chopped, loosely packed (1 small ¾ oz./21 gram herb package)
Instructions
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In a large mixing bowl, combine vinegar, olive oils, salt, red pepper flakes (if using), garlic, shallots, jalapenos, carrots, and sweet peppers. Stir well and allow ingredients to mingle at room temperature while you prep the herbs.
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Wash cilantro, parsley and oregano and gently pat dry with paper towel. Thin, fine cilantro and parsley stems are fine to use, but trim or remove heavy stems. Remove oregano leaves from stems. If chopping herbs by hand (recommended for better texture), use a sharp chef’s knife and cutting board and chop them in small batches. Measure, then add to the other ingredients as you go. You can use a food processor to chop the herbs, but do not to over-process lest you prefer a smoother consistency.
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Add chopped cilantro, parsley and oregano to bowl and stir well to combine ingredients. The sauce is delicious right away, but even better after flavors have married for 1 – 3 hours before serving.
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Serve sauce at room temperature in a small bowl with a spoon.
Recipe Notes
*The extra light olive oil is used just so the colors and flavors of the herbs and vegetables are brighter. It’s fine to use all extra virgin olive oil - the sauce will just be a little darker in color.
-The sweet peppers add lots of color and texture. You can certainly omit them, but they kind of “make” this sauce.
-I recommend chopping the shallots, jalapenos and sweet peppers by hand. It takes a bit longer, but the colors, shapes and textures they add to the sauce will be worth it!
-It may seem like the recipe calls for a lot of garlic, shallots, jalapenos, etc., but don't worry, their intensity and heat are softened by the olive oil and all the herbs. If you like more intensity, add more!
-Add more olive oil and/or red wine vinegar at the end if you want more liquid (the liquid ingredients will be more or less pronounced depending on how finely the herbs are chopped or processed).
-You can reduce the amount of cilantro by half, but more cilantro produces brighter flavor.
-Using flat AND curly leaf parsley adds more texture to the sauce, but using one or the other also works well.
-Sauce can remain at room temperature for several hours – as long as the herbs are covered in oil, they won’t discolor. Stir occasionally to distribute ingredients.
-To store, refrigerate in a covered glass bowl for up to 3 days.
-If using as a marinade for meats or as a dressing for veggies or salads, set aside approximately ½ cup or more as needed for other uses.
-Recipe adapted from Food52.