bacon chimichurri salad with grilled corn, zucchini and potatoes.

This summer salad is brought to you by:  Bacon!  Because really, is there any dish it can't improve?  I always keep a little glass jar of bacon fat in my fridge, but I love coming up with recipes that use it right when you acquire it after frying up some sweet, sweet strips.  

Last Summer I fell in love with chimichurri.  We were getting insane amounts of parsley through our CSA and it was all I could do to come up with enough uses for it.  Meat is the traditional vehicle for this tangy, herbacious, spicy, garlicky condiment, but why stop there?  It seems to beg for an earthy grilled counterpart like the veggies in this salad.  Substituting bacon fat for olive oil really takes chimichurri to new heights of awesomeness.  The dressing has a bright tartness from the red wine vinegar but the bacon adds a rich, smoky, sexy flavor that really makes it shine.

Bacon Chimichurri Salad 

with Grilled Corn, Zucchini and Potatoes

serves 2

Salad:

1 russet potato

1 zucchini

1 cob fresh corn

olive oil

1/2 a head of Romaine lettuce, chopped & washed

Bacon Chimichurri:

4 slices of bacon

3 T reserved bacon fat

1 T olive oil

1 cup chopped parsley

3 T red wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

generous pinch of red pepper flakes

salt and pepper, to taste

First, prep your salad vegetables.  Slice the potato and zucchini into 1/4 inch-thick diagonal rounds.  Toss them in a little olive oil to coat.  Brush the corn cob with a little more olive oil.  Place veggies on the grill and cook until a nice char forms on each side.  Remove from grill and allow to cool, slightly.  Cut veggies into smaller, bite-sized pieces and set aside.

Next, make your bacon chimichurri.  In a large pan over medium-high heat, fry bacon until crispy.  Remove bacon and allow to drain on a paper towel.  Chop or crumble bacon into bite-sized pieces.  Pour hot bacon fat into a small bowl through a fine-mesh sieve to filter out any burned bits (if desired).  Allow to cool until fat is just warm to the touch.

Meanwhile, place all your remaining chimichurri ingredients into a blender.  Pour 3 T of the cooled bacon fat into the mixture and blend really well, until the dressing becomes smooth.  Combine Romaine with grilled veggies and bacon and drizzle with desired amount of chimichurri (I used about half and stored the rest for later use).  Toss well and serve immediately.

Two uses for Chimichurri

Parsley.  The word doesn't always inspire excitement when one hears it.  In fact, the humble herb has often been used for decoration rather than food!  Then we all found out about chimichurri...

This tangy and bright-tasting condiment hails from Argentina and is generally considered a sauce for meat, particularly beef.  It's similar to pesto in method of preparation but the result is lighter, more vinegar-driven and distinctly spicy thanks to the red pepper flakes.  Either way, it is an easy way to make parsley taste awesome and this recipe uses up a lot of the herb at once, which is great news for all my fellow CSA friends that have been getting the stuff in abundance from Grant Family Farms!

As with any popular recipe, there are lots of different variations.  This one uses only parsley, but I've seen chimichurri recipes that have the addition of cilantro, oregano, or even chives.  Most chimichurri calls for garlic but I used grilled garlic scapes, instead.  They add a wonderful, smoky-garlic flavor to the sauce and the extra step of grilling the scapes helps to mellow them out a little.

This recipe makes a little over a cup of chimichurri and I used it two different ways:  one was simply as a dipping sauce for some home-made breadsticks (thanks to some leftover pizza dough).  The second is in the recipe, below, as a dressing for a hearty, grilled vegetable and chorizo salad. 


Chimichurri

2 bunches of parsley (curly or flat-leaf)
3-4 garlic scapes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or more, if desired)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat your grill to medium-high.  Wash garlic scapes and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Cook on the grill for about 2 minutes per side (scapes should get a little char but not too much or they will dry out).  Remove from heat and allow to cool, slightly.

Cut parsley leaves away from stems and add to a food processor.  When scapes have cooled, roughly chop them and add to the food processor along with vinegar and pepper flakes.  Pulse several times until parsley is well-chopped, then turn processor on and slowly drizzle in the oil.  Turn machine off and add salt and pepper to taste, then stir with a spatula to combine.


Grilled Vegetable and Chorizo Salad with Chimichurri Dressing
serves 3-4

1 large head lettuce (red leaf, romaine, or a mix of both), washed and chopped
1 medium zucchini
2-3 large red potatoes
1 8-oz Spanish chorizo (I used Palacios Hot), sliced
1/4 cup chimichurri
extra olive oil

Heat your grill to medium-high.  Using a mandoline, slice zucchini and potatoes into 1/4-inch thick slices and toss with a little olive oil.  Grill sliced vegetables until nice char marks form, about 2-3 minutes for zucchini and 4 minutes for the potato slices.  Remove from grill and set aside.

Place a small skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chorizo slices and cook until heated through and just barely browned, about 3-4 minutes.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk about a tablespoon of olive oil (or more) into the chimichurri to thin the mixture.  Toss half the dressing with the lettuce.  Portion the lettuce out into servings and top each with zucchini and potato slices.  Drizzle chimichurri on top of the vegetables, and top with chorizo slices.  Serve immediately.