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Chimichurri potato salad is a delicious way to add something different to your Labor Day festivities. With a homemade chimichurri sauce full of fresh herbs, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil, even your mayonnaise haters will love it!
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This year, I’m going to serve dishes that are a little more original for our Labor Day picnic. My menu will include Grilled Piri Piri Chicken, Pickled Deviled Eggs, French White Bean Salad, Grandma’s Pickled Vegetable Salad, Balsamic Fruit Salad, and chocolatey Australian Lamingtons for dessert. Oh, and of course a big pitcher of Florida Hurricane Cocktails! It is a holiday after all.
What Is Chimichurri?
Chimichurri is an uncooked sauce full of fresh herbs and garlic that originated in Argentina and Uraguay where it’s typically used on grilled meats. It has a bright, herbaceous flavor with a hit of acidity from red wine vinegar and a touch of heat from either chili flakes or red chiles.
This gorgeous green sauce has been adopted in many other cultures, each giving it its own spin. Try this sauce slathered onto a juicy steak (Churrasco), spread onto chicken breasts before baking or grilling for tons of flavor, or tossed with chopped vegetables before roasting for added flavor.
Ingredients Needed
One of the nice things about making this sauce is that you can customize it to suit your tastes. Like more heat? Add in another chile pepper or a sprinkle of chili flakes. Not a fan of cilantro? Swap in more parsley or even fresh basil!
For our recipe, which is a more traditional chimichurri, you’ll need:
- Fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, and fresh oregano -you can use 1 teaspoon of dried oregano instead of fresh, but use fresh parsley and cilantro.
- Shallot – a shallot gives a subtle onion flavor without overpowering the sauce. You could use the white part of scallions in a pinch.
- Garlic
- Olive oil – I used a good quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Red wine vinegar
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Steps To Make Chimichurri Potato Salad
- Make the chimichurri sauce by pulsing all of the sauce ingredients in a food processor. You want to see small pieces of herbs, shallot, and garlic. You don’t want to process it until the mixture looks like green baby food.
Alternatively, hand chop the herbs, shallots, and garlic until finely minced and then mix them into the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and chili flakes. This way, you are unlikely to mistakenly make ‘green baby food’.
- Peel and quarter the potatoes.
- Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender.
- Drain the potatoes in a colander.
- Toss the warm potatoes in the chimichurri sauce and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Pretty easy, right?
Tips
- Use fresh herbs. You really can’t use dried herbs for this sauce. You can get away with some dried oregano, but that’s about it.
- Use the best ingredients that you can find/afford. Each component adds a lot of flavor, thus the better quality the ingredient, the better the sauce will taste.
- Don’t overprocess the sauce in the food processor. The sauce should look like oil with bits of herbs, onions, and garlic. It should NOT look like an emulsified, green pesto.
- Tossing the warm potatoes in the chimichurri sauce will allow them to soak in more flavor than tossing cold potatoes in the sauce.
- Be sure to chill the salad for at least 30 minutes to allow the potatoes to soak in all that flavor.
- Just before serving, be sure to toss the potatoes once more to dress them in the oil that has collected at the bottom of the bowl.
Ways To Use Any Leftover Chimichurri
This sauce is best used the day it’s made, but it will keep tightly covered in your refrigerator for 2-3 days. Here are a few ideas to use your leftover chimichurri:
- Stir in sour cream for a dip and serve it with crudite.
- Add the chimichurri to mayonnaise to use as a sandwich spread.
- Toss it with warm pasta and grilled veggies for a zesty pasta salad.
- Slather it onto a loaf of crusty bread before baking for a great twist on garlic bread.
- Chimichurri makes an excellent marinade for chicken or fish.
- Top your scrambled eggs. This is AMAZING!
If you enjoyed this recipe, here are a few more potato salad recipes to consider:
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Chimichurri Potato Salad
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Chimichurri potato salad is a delicious way to add something different to your Labor Day festivities. With a homemade chimichurri sauce full of fresh herbs, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil, even your mayonnaise haters will love it!
Ingredients
For the chimichurri:
- ½ cup packed fresh parsley
- ¼ cup packed fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
- 1 small shallot, quartered
- 3 large garlic cloves
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 – 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
For the potato salad:
- 2 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes, cut in halves or quarters, depending on size
- Small handful of Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small red onion, very finely minced
Instructions
Place all of the chimichurri ingredients into the bowl of a food processor.
Pulse until everything is minced, but not pureed. Set aside.
Place the potatoes in a large sauce pot. Cover with enough cold water to cover the potatoes completely. Add enough Kosher salt so that the water tastes like the sea.
Bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat and cook until fork tender – 10-20 minutes, depending on size
Drain the potatoes and lace them into a large bowl.
Sprinkle in the minced onions.
Spoon the sauce over the warm potatoes and toss until all of the potatoes are coated with the sauce.
Taste for seasonings and adjust for salt and heat from the red pepper flakes.
Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to penetrate the potatoes.
When ready to serve, toss the potatoes lightly to ensure the chimichurri sauce is evenly distributed.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: Argentinian
Keywords: chimichurri potato salad, potato salad recipes, Labor day recipes, Memorial Day recipes, picnic recipes, Yukon gold potatoes, side dish, side dish recipes,
