THREE GLUTEN-FREE GREEN SAUCES
How often do you look in the fridge hoping for some inspiration for the evening’s meal?
We find that if we have some delicious homemade sauces and condiments on hand then the ideas come a bit quicker and easier.
Green Herb Sauce, Preserved Lemon Chermoula and Winter Pesto will all sit happily in your fridge for a while just waiting for the aha! moment.
Caren
GREEN HERB SAUCE
This sauce that can also be used like a condiment looks a lot like salsa verde but has a punchier flavour due to the white miso. It works well as a cold condiment with vegetables like crudités, chargrilled asparagus and eggplant or mixed through mayonnaise.
Makes approximately 330gm.
30 gm white miso
35 gm Dijon mustard
30 gm hot English Mustard
35 ml lemon juice
10 gm flat-leaf parsley
10 gm French tarragon leaves, or chervil
230 ml olive oil
Sea salt and ground pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a blender until just emulsified. Adjust seasoning if required.
Store in the fridge in a sterilised glass jar.
PRESERVED LEMON CHERMOULA
Chermoula is a sauce or relish widely used across North Africa. It will add the zip of leafy herbs and spices and the heat of chilli to just about anything you like. Start with cheese on a cracker and add a dab on top. Add spark and flavour to vegetables. Serve with fish or prawns. Or barbecued meat. If anything’s asking for a sauce, give it a try.
Makes approximately 400gm.
50 gm coriander, roughly chopped
25 gm flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
35 gm preserved lemon, skin only (about 1 medium lemon)
2 shallots, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or chilli flakes
Pinch sea salt
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juice (optional)
Place all the ingredients except lemon juice into a blender or food processor and pulse to make a chunky paste.
Adjust seasoning if necessary and add fresh lemon juice to taste.
Add more chilli if you like it hot.
WINTER ‘PESTO’
Winter Pesto is great to have on hand to enrich a wintery soup, serve as a pasta sauce with some freshly grated parmesan, pancetta and peas or use wherever you fancy some extra tasty, green flavour.
Makes approximately 375gm.
½ teaspoon salt
1 large leek, trimmed, halved, washed and cut into chunks
6 cloves garlic, peeled
½ bunch cavolo nero, stalks removed, washed and very roughly chopped
100 ml olive oil
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper to season
Fill a saucepan with water. Add the salt and bring to a boil.
Add the leek and garlic cloves and simmer for 3 minutes before adding the cavolo nero.
Simmer for a further 3 or 4 minutes. Reserve half a cup of the poaching liquid then strain the vegetables. Transfer them to a blender and add the olive oil. Blend until smooth. Add a few tablespoons of poaching liquid if necessary to achieve a consistency similar to thick cream.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Store in the fridge. Freezes well.