This is my Mint Chimichurri – a flavour packed no-cook sauce full of fresh herbs with a touch of chilli. The perfect partner for lamb!
Today’s recipe is for mint chimichurri – basically, an easy uncooked sauce made with finely chopped fresh herbs that you just stir together and serve. There are many versions of chimichurri, but I have made this one to specifically match with lamb. It’s packed with fresh herbs like mint and parsley, plus with a little hint of chilli.
Mint sauce is traditionally served with lamb, but I wanted to make a version that was less sweet, without sugar. Like a type of keto mint sauce – so I came up with this recipe for mint chimichurri for lamb instead of the usual mint sauce.
Ingredients you will need for this sauce
- fresh garlic
- long red chilli
- fresh mint leaves
- fresh parsley leaves
- fresh lemon juice
- olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- garlic infused olive oil (can be found with the other oils in the supermarket)
- fine salt to taste
*Please see the recipe card below for exact quantities and detailed instructions
How to make mint chimichurri
- Place garlic and chilli in the bowl of a food processor.
- Process until finely chopped.
- Add fresh mint and parsley leaves to the processor bowl as well.
- Process until finely chopped, then mix through remaining ingredients and serve.
My top tips for making this recipe
- I have used only half a long red chilli, with the seeds and ribs removed to reduce the heat. You could use the whole chilli with or without the seeds and ribs if you would like it hotter.
- No food processor? No problem – all you need is a sharp knife to finely chop the herbs and chilli by hand, and crush the garlic cloves.
- A note about the garlic infused olive oil. This sounds like an ingredient that would be hard to find, but most of the supermarkets now have a lot of different flavoured oils available. I know we have fresh garlic in the recipe already, but I like to add a small amount of the garlic infused oil because it’s a different flavour to the fresh garlic.
- I like to “core” the garlic cloves, which means slicing the clove in half longways and removing the green “onion like” core in the centre (sometimes it’s bright green, other times it’s quite white). This makes the garlic flavour milder and less sharp. An Italian chef once explained it to me as the garlic being “hotter” with the core still in.
Other sauce recipes you may enjoy
No Cook Mustard & Garlic Sauce – another super simple no cook sauce with mustard, butter, garlic and chives. Just melt, mix and serve!
Mustard Cream Sauce – a mustard cream sauce good enough to drink!
Mint Chimichurri
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves core removed (see notes)
- ½ long red chilli seeds & ribs removed (see notes)
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves firmly packed
- 1 cup fresh parsley leaves firmly packed
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp garlic infused olive oil (see notes)
- fine salt to taste
Instructions
- Place garlic (2 cloves - core removed) and long red chilli (½ a chilli with seeds and ribs removed) in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Then add fresh mint leaves (1 cup - firmly packed) and fresh parsley leaves (1 cup - firmly packed) to the processor bowl and process until finely chopped, scraping the sides of the processor bowl as needed.
- Combine lemon juice (2 tsp), olive oil (3 tblsp), red wine vinegar (2 tsp), garlic infused olive oil (1 tsp) and fine salt to taste in a bowl, then add chopped herb mixture and mix well to combine then serve.
Notes
- I have used only half a long red chilli, with the seeds and ribs removed to reduce the heat. You could use the whole chilli with or without the seeds and ribs if you would like it hotter.
- No food processor? No problem - all you need is a sharp knife to finely chop the herbs and chilli by hand, and crush the garlic cloves.
- A note about the garlic infused olive oil. This sounds like an ingredient that would be hard to find, but most of the supermarkets now have a lot of different flavoured oils available. I know we have fresh garlic in the recipe already, but I like to add a small amount of the garlic infused oil because it's a different flavour to the fresh garlic.
- I like to "core" the garlic cloves, which means slicing the clove in half longways and removing the green "onion like" core in the centre (sometimes it's bright green, other times it's quite white). This makes the garlic flavour milder and less sharp. An Italian chef once explained it to me as the garlic being "hotter" with the core still in.
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