Chimichurri Sauce?

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #1

Last week we had Chimichurri sauce on a ribeye at two Cuban restaurants in Orlando, FL, USA. At Bongo’s in Disney Springs the sauce was slightly red and at the other restaurant, it was green. Heavy parsley and cilantro. The Bongo’s sauce had lots of garlic in it, more than the other sauce. Bongo’s was out of this world but the green sauce was good.

We eat ribeye frequently and want to recreate the Bongo sauce.

There are a lot of recipes online like this one https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/cuban-chimichurri/

The ones we had did not have balsamic vinegar in them or at least we could not taste any.

Does anyone have a fully keto friendly recipe for chimichurri sauce?

The Bongo one had red flakes (pepper), hint of lime, just a tiny amount of cilantro and a lot of garlic. It was in an oil base, probably crap oil but I can change that in my kitchen. Very light acidity from white vinegar. I think I could taste just a hint of anchovies but no online recipes have anchovies in them.

I’m going to try to make some in the next week. I’ll post my journey. We all loved it.

(Carl Keller) #2

I used to make a chimi sauce several years back and IIRC, it didn’t have anything carby in it. I do remember it was parsley, cilantro, red wine vinegar, lime juice, EVOO, salt and pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes but I cant remember the exact amounts.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #3

Thanks Carl. I’ll start with those ingredients. I will have lots of garlic since we love garlic in my household.

#4

Could the anchovy flavor have been fish sauce?
Personally I love anchovies and I’d add them lol.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #5

Okay, family says I nailed the Chimichurri sauce. Perfect keto sauce for steak. We used ribeye which we salted and grilled medium rare. Spread the sauce on top when plating the steak.

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Below is the recipe which should feed 6 people eating 8 oz of steak. We were three of us so we have lots of sauce for freshly ground and grilled burgers later this week. Also dripped a little on steamed buttered broccoli.

We were looking for a subtle lime and acidity and achieved that. Garlic was strong but not over-powering, just like we like it.

Chimichurri Sauce - Bongos Cuban restaurant in Disney Springs inspired

  • ½ cup parsley
  • ½ cup cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fine fresh oregano
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoon lime juice
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 1 cup Olive Oil - EVOO
  • 2 tsp salt then to taste
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 5 medium cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes chopped fine

Make the sauce

  • Chop parsley fine
  • Chop cilantro fine
  • Chop garlic very fine

combine in a ceramic bowl

  • Parsley
  • Cilantro
  • Oregano
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Garlic

Mash, crush, mix ingredients with wooden spoon. Work the ingredients.

Add lime juice, lime zest, wine, olive oil, and crushed red peppers

Stir and put in the fridge to get flavors to mellow a little.

You can use a ceramic mortar and pestle.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #6

Might have been fish sauce. Bongos is Estefan’s restaurant and he has a cookbook. Hope to check one out of the library to see if the recipe is in the book. See the recipe I did tonight below. No anchovies.

Next time I will try the fish sauce in the mix.

#7

I have made this a few times. It is easy and yummy.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #8

Thanks. I need to get a food processor. Mine is dead. We are going to make this out new sauce of the day. I even used 1 tbl spoon on a salad yesterday. Usually I just use 1 tbl spoon of olive oil on a salad. What a difference.