Healthy Cooking: Transform fistfuls of parsley into a yummy summer sauce

My lockdown victory garden overflows with fresh herbs. I’ve gifted jars of pesto and bouquets of mint to everyone I’ve ever met. But I’m selfishly clinging to my flat-leaf parsley like it’s my last container of disinfecting wipes. Why? Parsley is the heart of chimichurri, the yummiest summer sauce I make. It tastes like magic, and by magic, I mean garlic and green grass. Chimichurri hails from Argentina, yet it only requires a few ingredients from your backyard or local market.

Start with two big bunches of parsley that have been relieved of their thicker stems. Toss the herbs in the bowl of a large food processor, along with a little fresh oregano and a lot of olive oil. Season it and give it a whirl. Traditionally chimichurri is hand chopped, which makes a beautiful sauce and also productively channels a lot of frustration. However, my current mood is mellow and I’m making approximately a million gallons of chimichurri in a single afternoon, so I have zero qualms about using the food processor.

You may be surprised to see a Healthy Cooking recipe that calls for a full cup of oil, no matter how heart-healthy it is. We get away with it in this recipe because we’re using most of the oil in the chimichurri marinade. Our steak will soak up all of the bright flavor, but only minimal amounts of fat. And that’s Healthy Cooking shock number two: We’re grilling red meat to accompany our chimichurri.