Parsley Salad – Party on 

Does the phrase “a party in your mouth” sound offensive? I can often tell, just by reading a recipe, that it’s likely to bring on that buzz. And when I see a recipe that looks scrumptious and healthy and have the ingredients on hand and the sole instruction is to combine in processor, it’s party time — a green light flashing ”go.” And what could be more green than parsley salad?     

 Parsley Salad

• 1 bunch of parsley, stemmed
• 1 medium-sized red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 T capers
• 1/2 c walnuts
• 2 c dried homemade breadcrumbs
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 c olive oil
• Herbamare salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Toss garlic and walnuts into a food processor and pulse to chop. Add parsley, onion and capers and process to blend, using a spatula intermittently to ensure ingredients are evenly cut.  Add breadcrumbs and lemon juice and pulse to combine. Add olive oil and pulse to combine. Season with salt and pepper and process to combine.

Serve Parsley Salad as a side or a condiment. It goes well with eggs, fish, seafood, chicken, meat, pasta, toast, crackers or, dare I say, everything. Parsley Salad can be used to encrust a rack of lamb before or after cooking. It can be added to minced meat before cooking a burger or even used as a burger topping. Dress a potato salad with it, complement cooked or raw vegetables, garnish a soup. The crispy breadcrumb texture, sweetness of the red onion, tartness of the lemon, freshness of the parsley, brine of the capers, bite of the garlic, density of the nuts and smoothness of the olive oil all combine to make Parsley Salad sing.

Note:  Make half of the recipe at a time if you’re not planning to use the Parsley Salad quickly. It tastes more like a smooth dip the second day; you lose the crunch of the breadcrumbs.

 Parsley Salad Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• Spoiler alert! I’m not Greek. But Peter Minaki of Kalofagas-Greek Food & Beyond is. Peter is one of Canada’s finest Greek food experts, and you can thank him for this Parsley Salad recipe. His version features almonds, not walnuts, a great deal more olive oil and an explanation of provenance. Thank you, Peter!
• I know and love tabouli. I know and love pesto. Parsley Salad is similar, but different. Try it out and let me know what you think.
• And what parsley party would be complete without a complementary tune? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme…