A good salsa verde elevates a good meal to next-level greatness. If you are like me and buy fresh herbs, use half the bunch then watch the other half go to waste then this method will save you time and dollars. This recipe will ensure you use all of your herbs, none goes to waste and you’ll have a great-tasting salsa verde on hand for weeks to come.
Use this recipe on anything from Mexican tacos, as a salad dressing, on steak, chicken, as a dip, drizzled on eggs and avocado, even mixed into soup. The freshness burst is insanely good.
Pinpoints: use the freshest herbs available, invest in a great tasting olive oil—not too strong but still with a great flavour and always use fresh garlic. Minced garlic in a jar will give you bad breath and has a completely different flavour. Just don’t bother with the jar ever.
Salsa Verde Fresh and Zingy
Ingredients
- One bunch of mint
- One bunch of coriander (cilantro)
- Optional bunch of parsley (can swap out one of the other herbs or add as well as)
- One bunch of basil
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (I personally like Cobram Estate either the purple labelled fruity one or the more robust dark green-labelled one)
- Juice from one large lemon or two limes (about 3-4 Tb)
- 2 tsp Celtic sea salt
- 3 cloves garlic minced
Method
- Trim herbs so you only have the green leafy bits and tender stems. Remove roots, dead bits and any stems that are old or tough.
- Place herbs in a blender with oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic and blend until mixture is like a thick sauce.
- Check seasoning and texture. Add more lemon juice or olive oil if the mixture needs more liquid. Lemon juice will add brightness and bring out the freshness of the herbs but too much and it will be overpowering. Add more salt if needed.
- Set aside the salsa verde that you require for the meal and pour the rest into small freezable containers. I use a silicone baby food mould for mine. These are available in the baby section of most supermarkets.
- Freeze.
- When frozen pop into a zip lock bag to defrost whenever you need a hit of flavour.
Tips…
*You can use this principle for freezing any herbs to avoid waste. Either blend them individually or as a mix. Omit lemon, salt and garlic if you are unsure what you will want to use them for. That way you can have single flavours on hand. You may want to use a milder olive oil for example if you think you may be using for an Asian meal. If blending mint for smoothies freeze in water, not oil.
