Carrot Top Chimichurri

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you know I’ve been volunteering at a local farm in exchange for a CSA box. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s a program where you sign up to receive a weekly share of seasonal produce directly from a farm. They’re a way to connect more closely with local farmers and to enjoy ULTRA-fresh food.

The taste difference between locally-grown and supermarket produce is distinctive, but local veggies are also (generally) more nutritious. For instance, more nutrient loss occurs the more time a fruit or veggie spends in transit or in storage; this is especially true of Vitamin C! So, the closer you can eat something from the time it was picked, the more nutrient-dense it will be.

The fun part about CSAs is that you never know what you’re going to get until the day before or day of. It’s a true practice in creativity! Lately, we’ve been getting tasty carrot bunches with the bushy tops still attached. Not wanting to waste anything I get, I’ve been enjoying find ways to add carrot tops to my diet. They are mild with a faint taste of carrot, so they’re extraordinarily easy to slip into salads, soups, stock, and even smoothies. But this chimichurri has been one of my favorites so far.

Chimichurri is an uncooked, tangy, herb-y and garlicky condiment originally from Uruguay and Argentina. While it is traditionally used on grilled meats, especially beef, I find it’s an excellent marinade or basting sauce for vegetables, poultry, and white fish. It can also be used lightly as a sauce in it’s raw form.

My personal favorite way to use this is to toss it with some sweet potato wedges and then bake. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes is the perfect compliment to the strong flavors of the chimichurri. Let me know what you do with yours!