Garlic Scape Chimichurri Sauce

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This recipe offers a twist on the classic Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce by adding a wonderfully unique sweet and spicy ingredient. This Garlic Scape Chimichurri Sauce offers all the hallmark flavors of a beautiful Chimichurri Sauce. The twist – instead of using regular Garlic, try replacing it with Garlic Scapes! The flavors are quite similar, but you achieve some subtly nuanced flavor differences. The Scapes are slightly sweeter, have a herby aroma to them, and their texture is so unique

How to make a delicious Garlic Scape Chimichurri Sauce

I love making a sauce that doesn’t require any cooking. Unlike those fancy French Sauces like Béarnaise or Red Wine Sauce, this one is so easy to make! Simply add all of the ingredients into the blender or food processor and blitz it all up. What could be easier!

The core ingredients for a Chimichurri is herbs and aromatics. For the Herbs use a combination of fresh Parsley and fresh Cilantro. You can roughly chop it up a little bit to make it easier for the blender to mix it all together, but it is not really necessary. You use about 3 parts Parsley to 1 part Cilantro. This gets the right herby flavor, as Cilantro can be an overpowering ingredient if too much is used

The final herb to add is Oregano. We’ve found that using the dried Oregano that most people have already in their kitchen pantry does a great job. No need to buy a big batch of fresh Oregano for this dish

Then add a generous amount of Scapes (we opted for 2 whole Scapes worth) for a big Garlic hit to the dish. You can always scale back the number of Garlic Scapes and simply add more if you think it needs it once the sauce is done. That’s the great part about making this sauce. You can completely adjust the flavor by adding more quantities once it’s done. Just taste test and adjust!

Liquids to add to the Sauce

Of course, simply blending the Herbs and Scapes together is not going to achieve a smooth, saucy consistency that we all know and love. The liquids that are added to the Sauce is a combination of Vinegar (we opted for Apple Cider, but you can also use Red Wine Vinegar), Lemon Juice, and of course, Olive Oil

Olive Oil is the other core component to this sauce. It is what gives a Chimichurri Sauce it’s famous consistency and flavor. Always use good quality Olive Oil when making Sauces and Salads. The trick with Olive Oil is to slowly pour it into the Blender once all the other ingredients are in there and blending away. Slowly add it to help emulsify the sauce

Taste the Sauce as you’re adding the Olive Oil. Try not to add too much to avoid the Sauce turning greasy. You want just enough to get a beautiful smooth, velvety consistency in this wonderful Sauce

No Onion or Shallot is needed

Many Chimichurri recipes call for the addition of Onion or Shallots to the Sauce. For our Garlic Scape Chimichurri this is not required. The reason for that is the Garlic Scapes provide that wonderful, oniony flavor that you would get from regular Garlic

The Scapes have almost a Scallion / Green Onion type of quality to them. Given the quantity of Scapes that are added to this dish, there is simply no need for adding Onion. Making this Sauce even easier to make!

Dial up the heat with the addition of Jalapenos

Traditionally a Chimichurri is a little bit Spicy. To add spice to the sauce, simply cut up a Jalapeno and add it to the blender along with the other ingredients. This is an optional addition to the sauce. If you’re not big fans of spice, then simply don’t add it!

The level of spice in a Jalapeno is manageable, but if you want a load of heat then keep the seeds! Those seeds are super-spicy, so be careful! I’d suggest removing them and simply adding the Jalapeno flesh, but if you want a super-spicy sauce keep the seeds

Oh, did we mention that Garlic Scapes are really affordable?

In these times keeping a close eye on the price of your weekly grocery shopping couldn’t be more critical. That’s why Garlic Scapes are a fantastic alternative to regular Garlic for your weekly shop. Their price per lb. / kg. is significantly less than that of Garlic Bulbs, so you can either save money, or buy up to 5x the volume for the same price as you would regular Garlic

We got a deal at our local farmers market for 2 heaped bundles of Garlic Scapes for only $5. I probably got close to 2 lbs. worth of Scapes for this price. Compared to the price of Garlic, which can be astronomical (above $30 per lb.) this was an absolute steal!

What to serve with Garlic Scape Chimichurri Sauce

A Chimichurri Sauce is super-versatile when it comes to food pairings. It will go with almost any kind of protein from Chicken, Pork, Fish, to the most classic of pairings – Steak. There very well may be no more famous food pairing than a great piece of Steak topped with Chimichurri Sauce

The type of Steak you can cook is up to you. However, for the most classic of flavors we recommend a Steak that has been cooked over an open fire. This is the classic way to prepare Steak and Chimichurri Sauce. I think this is because the Chimichurri offers such a light and bright flavor contrast to the rich, charcoal flavor from the Steak

Honestly though, any Steak is going to taste great with this Garlic Scape Chimichurri as a side dish. We’ve got a load of delicious Steak recipes here, so feel free to give it a browse. There are a couple of Steaks we 100% recommend. The first being our Honey Soy Hanger Steak. This Steak is the dish we made for the photos in this recipe. The sweet and salty flavors of the Honey Soy Marinade pair perfectly with the Chimichurri Sauce

Another great option is Skirt Steak. This is probably the most famous pairing. We’ve got a delicious Skirt Steak and Chimichurri Recipe here. The Chimichurri Sauce is very similar to this recipe. The only difference is we used regular Garlic instead of Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scape Chimichurri Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Fresh Parsley
• ½ cup of Fresh Cilantro
• 2 tsp. Dried Oregano
• 1 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar or Red Wine Vinegar
• ⅓ cup of Olive Oil
• 2 whole Garlic Scapes, roughly chopped
• Juice of 2 Lemons
• 1 Jalapeno, seeds removed (optional)
• 2 tsp. Salt
  
  

Equipment needed: Blender or Food Processor

Instructions

1. Prepare the Herbs and Aromatics by roughly chopped them up, then adding them into a blender or food processor
2. Add the remaining ingredients to the blender / food processor (excluding the Olive Oil) and turn the Blender on low
3. Slowly begin to drizzle the Olive Oil into the mixture as the blender is still running on low. Add about half the Oil over the space of about 30 seconds. Turn off the Blender and scrape down the sides
4. Return to blending and adding the Oil until a beautiful smooth sauce has formed. Turn the Blender off and check the sauce for flavor. Adjust if necessary and then pour the sauce into a serving bowl
   
   

Recipe Notes

• The sauce will keep for 2 – 3 days if covered and refrigerated after use, making it a great sauce to prepare in advance
• The addition of Jalapeno to the sauce is optional, and only needed if you want a spicy sauce. We recommend avoiding adding the seeds of the Jalapenos
  
  

We just know you’re going to love this beautiful Garlic Scape Chimichurri Sauce. If this is your first time trying Garlic Scapes, I’m hoping this is going to be a revelation to you! These wonderful and underappreciated vegetables are a great addition to your home cooking repertoire!

For more delicious sauces like this one you can head over to our Sauces page here. We’ve got loads of tasty Sauces for you to check out, include these:

• Homemade Enchilada Sauce
• Authentic Thai Peanut Sauce
• Homemade Tzatziki Sauce
• Dill Sauce for Salmon
  
  

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