Kale Chimichurri
Chimichurri (you know, that Argentinian herb sauce for topping delicious grilled meats) is maybe one of the most under appreciated, easy, game changing sauces to transform any home made meal. You need almost no equipment save a knife and cutting board, and it comes together basically as fast as you can chop something into very small pieces. Packed with bright herbs, punchy garlic, lots of rich and fruity olive oil, and a bit of tangy vinegar, this sauce goes well with almost any food you have on your dinner (or lunch!) plate.
That sounds awesome, so why would we want to change anything? Well, making ‘normal’ foods is not very stimulating for me and I am always looking to see how I can switch up dishes and recipes to make something new. In this case, the theory that kale could be swapped out for most of the herbs and still result in an awesome chimichurri was definitely confirmed. And, if you are not a kale lover, stick with me here because this sauce is so full of other amazing and strong flavors it doesn’t even taste like kale.
The cool thing about this sauce is that it employs a very high tech and semi mind blowing technique I may have (but probably not really) invented; micro-blanching. Normal blanching is when you boil water, add a bit of veggies (usually), let them cook for like 10-20 seconds until they are super bright in color, and then immediately transfer to an ice bath to shock them and stop the cooking. This par cooking technique is great for setting foods up for further preparation like adding to a dish where they will only need to be cooked briefly, or to top a salad with, or something along those lines where you want the veg lightly cooked. This technique can also be utilized in certain cases to make colors of foods brighter and last longer, like with herbs. You can blach herbs and then add them to a sauce where they will be and stay much brighter than an unblanched counterpart. This is especially effective when the sauce has acid in it, which intensively accelerates the browning of green things.
So, keeping this in mind while feeling too lazy to set up a blanching station, I decided to try micro-blanching the kale for this already Frankenstein chimi. What is micro-blanching exactly? Like I said above, it is a very high tech cooking method where you briefly microwave a food, like veggies or herbs, until lightly cooked and tenderized, and bright in color. Indeed, just a minute in the microwave results in basically the same outcome expected from blanching the normal way with hot water, cold water, and some sort of accompanying mess usually.
I am super psyched about this because we can make and keep this sauce bright green with minimal effort and just a little outside the box (or pot) thinking. After you have a bright green base, a handful of punchy, bright, pungent, and rich ingredients are added for a pretty exceptional sauce that makes everything from chicken to fish to rice to veggies to grilled steak level up. It’s like really good restaurant food, but in your house, and in just a few minutes. Hope you enjoy!
Kale Chimichurri
Makes about 1 cup
3 cups (85g) torn kale leaves, lightly packed, stems removed
½ cup (12g) basil leaves, lightly packed
½ cup (120ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs. (15ml) red wine vinegar
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. lemon zest
¼ tsp. flaky/Kosher salt
¼ tsp. fresh ground black pepper
¼ tsp. crushed red pepper
Place kale leaves in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave 30 seconds. Toss around in the bowl, and microwave another 30 seconds until leaves are bright green.
Chop kale very finely. This will take a few minutes and when you think you are done, keep chopping another minute. You really want the pieces to be super small to achieve the desired texture and consistency of the sauce. Add to a bowl.
Place basil in microwave safe bowl. Microwave just 10-15 seconds until the leaves are bright green. Mince to the same size as kale and add to the bowl with the kale.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Serve on basically anything!
Store leftovers covered in the fridge for a few days.