Chimichurri Sauce Recipe and Chimichurri Peas

If you're looking for recipe ideas for chimichurri sauce then these chimichurri peas are a great way to use this vibrant garlic and herb dressing. It's just as good on all kinds of green vegetables and makes a delicious side dish.

If you want to make a side dish of peas a little more vibrant, I can definitely recommend these chimichurri peas. The fresh herbs, garlic, chilli and vinegar in the chimichurri sauce really do turn a plain bowl of peas into a showstopper of a side dish!

In this particular recipe for chimichurri peas the sharpness of the vinegar along with the freshness of the parsley really complements the sweetness of the peas.

But what is chimichurri sauce?

Chimichurri sauce is a vinegary garlic and fresh herb salsa from Argentina. It's served raw and is packed with flavour from fresh herbs, garlic, chilli peppers and vinegar. It's used as both a sauce and a marinade. This particular recipe is for a traditional chimichurri sauce using parsley and oregano. 

It's a brilliant vegan sauce and perfect for anyone who loves strong flavours. In fact, it's perfect for livening up so many meaty and vegetarian recipes.

I've also got another quite different chimichurri recipe using coriander.

Ingredient notes for traditional chimichurri sauce

To make this traditional chimichurri sauce you'll need:

• Herbs - Parsley and oregano. I always use fresh parsley but just dried oregano as I rarely have it fresh. Do add some fresh oregano if you have it though. I wouldn't advice replacing the parsley with dried parsley as you really do need to have some fresh herbs in a chimichurri sauce.
• Garlic - Because garlic is an important part of the sauce it's best to use fresh garlic rather than a puree for this recipe.
• Red pepper flakes - You can replace the pepper flakes with a finely diced red chilli pepper if you want.
• Extra virgin olive oil - Use a good quality oil as the flavour is important.
• Vinegar - You can use red or white wine vinegar. Even cider vinegar or sherry are fine. If you don't have vinegar then lemon juice is also a good alternative.
• Peas - If you're making the chimichurri peas then you really do need some cooked peas too. I always like to use cooked frozen peas.

Is chimichurri easy to make?

Chimichurri sauce is so simple to make. It's just a matter of putting the ingredients into a food processor and blitzing them up. It takes less than 5 minutes to make this easy chimichurri sauce recipe!

How I developed this recipe

Chimichurri sauce is often served with steak and, believe it or not, I created this recipe as we had leftover chimichurri sauce and leftover peas. I simply stirred the leftover chimichurri sauce into the peas to make a tasty cold side dish. I wasn't planning to post it but it was just so good!

Since then I've often made extra chimichurri sauce just to be able to have enough to make these spicy peas.

How to use up leftover chimichurri sauce

It is always a good idea to make a lot of this chimichurri sauce as it really is quite addictive. Here are just a few of my favourite ways to use it up:

• Serve it with roasted vegetables. It's delicious on roasted sweet potato, aubergine and cauliflower.
• Add it to a coleslaw or a chopped raw vegetable salad. 
• Stir it into a tin of rinsed and drained mixed beans to make a delicious bean salad.
• Do the same but with a tin of lentils.
• Swirl it into your favourite soup
• Put it in a sandwich
• Dot it onto a pizza
• Use it as a simple cream-free potato salad dressing
• Put it on scrambled eggs or on shakshuka
• Serve it with some crusty bread as a dip.
• As a dressing for grilled halloumi

I have to say, I could just eat it by itself off the spoon!

Can you adapt the chimichurri recipe?

This is a traditional chimichurri recipe but don't feel you have to stick to it. You can use different herbs. I love it with coriander (cilantro). You could also add a little basil.

I used dried oregano but feel free to replace it with fresh oregano.

Add a fresh chilli pepper rather than just pepper flakes. Or make it hotter by adding extra pepper flakes or miss them out altogether. You could even add a sun-dried tomato.

Is this the same as Nandos Macho Peas?

No, if you're looking for a copycat macho peas recipe I'm afraid this is not it. Nandos Macho Peas don't have vinegar or garlic in and also contain mint. However, both pea recipes have parsley, chilli and olive oil in.

So, although this recipe is not the same, if you like macho peas, I'm sure you'll also love this recipe.

Storing the leftovers

Any leftover chimichurri sauce will keep in a covered container in the fridge for about 3 days.

Can you freeze chimichurri sauce?

You can also freeze leftover chimichurri for up to three months. Ice cube trays are ideal for freezing it in.

More tasty side dishes

Here are some more delicious plant based side dishes:

• Harissa carrot salad
• Caribbean three bean salad

Recipe

Chimichurri Peas

Corina Blum

If you're looking for recipe ideas for chimichurri sauce then these chimichurri peas are a great way to use this vibrant garlic and herb dressing.  It's just as good on all kinds of green vegetables and makes a delicious side dish.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 5 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Argentinian

Servings 2

Calories 175 kcal

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 30 g parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes Use a diced fresh chilli pepper if you like
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoon vinegar red wine or white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano Replace the dried herbs with fresh if you can
• 6 tablespoon peas cooked

Instructions

 

• Put all the ingredients except the peas into a food processor.   Blend until you get a sauce.   Add a little extra oil or vinegar to get the right consistency.
• Mix the chimichurri sauce into the peas. Add as much or as little as you like.

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate and a guideline only.

Nutrition

Calories: 175kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 3gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 20mgPotassium: 192mgFiber: 3gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 1755IUVitamin C: 38.9mgCalcium: 45mgIron: 1.8mg

Keyword chimichurri sauce recipe

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