Cilantro Salsa Verde twice in one week

One of my favorite  meals of all time is Skirt Steak with Chimichurri sauce.  Although it may be difficult to pronounce, chimichurri is super easy to make.  Conventional chimichurri is made with Parsley, olive oil, salt, garlic, pepper and red pepper flakes.  There are all kinds of chimichurri variations.  Some add mint to the mix.  While changing channels the other day, I stumbled upon a chef on the cooking channel who was drizzling a cilantro salsa verde over grilled chicken.  Not wanting to miss anything, I quickly ran to a chair to watch him make it.  His ingredients reminded me of chimichurri,  and as far as I can tell the only difference was cilantro versus parsley.

Two nights ago, we decided it was time to fire up the grill.  Luckily, I had brought home some cilantro!  If you’ve never had chimichurri before, I encourage you to try it.  There’s just something about all the fresh ingredients drizzling over the grilled meat.  The bright colors and the citrusy bite can take your taste buds up to another level.  If you haven’t noticed I might be in need of an avocado intervention pretty soon.  I just can’t stop bringing them home!  Here’s round 1 of the Cilantro Salsa Verde…

Tonight’s menu consisted of ground beef tacos and yellow rice.  Halfway through cooking, I decided to add a bean salad as a side dish.  Yes, it had avocados.  Did I mention I might be obsessed with avocados lately?  I used small red beans, but you can use any bean.  As a dressing, I used the Cilantro Salsa Verde from the previous night.  Here’s Round 2…

The bean salad was made up of tomatoes, avocados, purple onion and yellow pepper.  It was also used as “taco filling” for a meatless option.  Do you like sour cream?  Have you tried using plain greek yogurt instead?  My personal favorite is Fage.

Cilantro Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Using a food processor, add the cilantro and garlic clove and pulse into finely chopped.
2. Once the cilantro is finely chopped, add the olive oil to the food processor and pulse for a few pulses.
3. Bring mix to a mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients.  For best taste refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.  You may use it immediately.  If you refrigerate it, make sure to use it in a day or two.

 Directions:

1. Rinse and drain the beans.

2. In a large bowl, combine beans, tomato, red onion, and yellow pepper.  Sprinkle some salt  to taste, then drizzle some of the cilantro salsa verde.  Refrigerate or serve immediately.