I’m certain you know that salsa verde means green sauce. In more than one language! So saying that you’re making a green sauce gives you an incredible amount of freedom.
I had a lot of green things in my fridge. We’ve got this great weekly CSA box, and that means lots of garlic scapes (the part of the garlic that grows above ground). What to do with all these very green scapes? Make salsa verde.
The citrus with the fresh herbs bring such lightness to dishes that can otherwise be a little heavy. I made this sauce to put on surf & turf nachos with rich carnitas and blackened fish, and it added a much-needed lightness that made the finished dish completely addictive.
The Recipe
2 small avocados
1 jalapeño (Seeded or not, up to you. I seeded it and regretted it later.)
1 small shallot
1 1/2 cups of mint
1 1/2 cups of cilantro
Juice and zest of half an orange
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1-2 tbsps olive oil
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 garlic scape
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp anchovy paste
1 tsp kosher salt (This is a good starting place. Mine needed more, but that may be a matter of preference.)
Combine in a food processor until smooth.
Notes and substitution suggestions:
For the vinegar, I used rice wine; I suspect apple cider would work well, too.
If you don’t have garlic scapes, I would sub 1-2 cloves of garlic here. It depends on the size and how much you like garlic.
The water is for the consistency—you’ll want it thick but pourable. If you want it really thick, omit this or add it slowly until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.
Re anchovy paste: this is common in Italian salsa verdes (salsas verde?), but can be omitted for a vegan sauce. If you don’t have anchovy paste, you could use half a fillet or a few dashes of fish sauce to round out the flavor.
Avocado also needs a ton of salt. Taste and see what your sauce needs; it may need more.
Salsa verde is typically fresh herbs blended with oil and seasonings, but I had some perfectly ripe avocados that were going to go bad if I left them for another day. So I subbed one fat for another. I was a little worried about oxidation affecting the greenness of my green sauce, but it has so much citrus that the leftovers are still green three days later. (Aside: it only got better in the fridge. Yum.)
I made the sauce with what was in my kitchen, and I encourage you to do the same. The herbs can switched for others depending on your preferences, but for me the hero was (as always) the mint. We’ve used the sauce in Mexican dishes, and the mint is such a welcome juxtaposition to the smoky, rich flavors of the other components.
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