Make It For Your Date: Carrot Green Chimichurri

Carrot Green Chimichurri from Love & Lemons

We all know the saying “The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. This can also be a fairly speedy route to the female heart as well. Staying in and making your date dinner (or making it together) rates high on the romance scale. You get to show off your creativity and appreciation for nuance & details, even if it’s a simple dish. No different from putting an outfit together. That’s what this series is about. She or he will be left impressed, and you won’t need the skills of Wolfgang Puck.  

• Familiar Ingredients: olive oil, oregano, cumin, red pepper flake, garlic, salt, fresh ground pepper, white wine vinegar, ground sweet paprika
• Not So Familiar Ingredients: carrot greens
• Number of Pans/Pots you’ll need to make this dish: baking sheet to roast carrots (or you can grill them), grill for meat

No, I’m not suggesting you only feed your paramour carrot greens. And hi by the way! Apologies that it’s been a while since you’ve seen one of these articles. I’ve been a little busy with another project. But this recipe turned out so tasty, I was compelled to share.

First, you may be asking, what the heck is chimichurri? Savory deliciousness, that’s what. But if you want to get into the details, this sauce, popular in Argentina and Uruguay, is a fresh, uncooked sauce usually consisting of minced parsley, garlic, oil, white vinegar, and oregano. Interestingly the term is believed to come from the Basque language, essentially referring to a “kitchen sink” sauce. This sauce is traditionally paired with grilled meats.

 Click here for the recipe.

The star of this show is obviously the chimichurri, but in this case we’re pairing it with the carrots the green tops came off of, and a grilled meat of your choice. I chose salmon simply because I had some that needed to be used, but beef would pair deliciously here, and I’d recommend a flat iron steak.

Here are a few quick tips to help make a success of this recipe:

Carrots – Look for smaller, tender carrots, with (obviously) the greens still attached. If you have a local farmers market you should be able to find some there. Otherwise, you might have to go to a grocery store like Amaz… I mean Whole Foods. Or, look for carrots with tops at your local grocer. If you have to buy big carrots in order to get some with the tops attached, just chop them down into long carrot sticks prior to roasting.

Carrot Greens – The greens call for a very fine chop, almost a mince. You can use a food processor to get this done quickly if you want, but just be sure not to over-process so you don’t end up with carrot top slush. Use the pulse feature on the processor so you can control how much the tops are chopped down. You need a full cup of chopped greens, so you might want to have some fresh parsley at the ready to chop and add in, just in case you need to supplement. You can also use the parsley as garnish.

You’re going for a fine chop on the carrot greens.

Spices – All the needed spices for the chimichurri will be readily available in any spice aisle at the grocery store.

White Wine Vinegar – In a pinch you could use just plain white vinegar (won’t be gluten free, if that is an issue), or white balsamic. Don’t substitute out white for regular balsamic (although red wine vinegar would be ok). There is a flavor difference, and I don’t think a heavier vinegar would work well here.

Meat – If you’re cooking for your date, don’t skimp on cheap meat. Go for something that was treated well while it was alive. It will taste different, and you can feel good about making a better choice for your date’s hot bod.

Final Note: Since chimichurri hails from Argentina, I’m going to suggest pairing this dish with a Malbec wine (especially if you’re eating beef). Look for a Malbec with a lower ABV, something under 14%, so the alcohol doesn’t overwhelm the flavors of the food. Argentina is knows for their Malbec, but you can get a great Malbec from France as well.

Sarah is a long time member of the Dappered team, typically working behind the scenes editing posts, taking some photos, and keeping the books in good standing. Occasionally she’ll come out from behind the curtain to offer her two cents. Check out more Make It For Your Date Ideas here.