Chickweed chimichurri (err… what?)

Chickweed. It sounds like something I should be pulling up out of my garden and throwing in the yardwaste bin. But really, it’s an herb with numerous potential benefits. It is high in Vitamin A, D, B complex, and C. It’s also rich in iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and manganese. Much like stinging nettles, chickweed is good to cleanse the digestive system (but with no annoying side effects) and is a very mild diuretic. It helps kidney function and can also help arthritis.

Fresh chickweed

I picked up a bag of chickweed today from Nash’s Organic Produce. They had a big basket of it and the lovely and helpful woman behind the table encouraged me to pick up a sprig and try a bite. It was interesting. Much like nettles, chickweed tastes very green. It’s fresh, clean, and mild. Unlike nettles, you can eat it raw (like for salads) or cooked in a soup.

Nash’s also had two free recipes for using chickweed. Since the weather was so outrageously beautiful today, I wanted something cool and refreshing for the first day we could sit in our garden area with a glass of wine relaxing. The original recipe called for tuna, but the only tuna available right now is from Fiji, so I substituted some wonderful smoked salmon from Wilson Fish. Fresh salmon and halibut season opens on May 1st, so it won’t be long until we’ll have a fresh crop of new salmon recipes.

A quick word about the ingredients for today’s recipe. Yes, we splurged and used lemon juice. We try to keep our lemon and lemon juice needing recipes to just a handful per year. However, sometimes, we just need that tangy citrus bite. We’ll be planting our Yuzu tree next weekend though, so hopefully we’ll be able to grown our own citrus very soon.

Smoked Salmon with Chickweed Chimichurri adapted from Nash’s Organic Produce

• 1/2 cup chickweed (or a good solid handful)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 small leek
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 crushed red chili pepper (or some Zane and Zack ’s spicy rub)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Smoked salmon
• Crackers or a Tall Grass Bakery baguette for serving

Slice the salmon thinly.

Cut the baguette into thin slices.

Chickweed chimichurri with smoked salmon

Chop the chickweed, mince the leeks, and the garlic.

Mix chickweed, leeks, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, red pepper, and salt in a bowl.

Serve the cracker or baguette slice topped with a bit of the smoked salmon and the chickweed chimichurri.

Results: As much as I love smoked salmon, I admit that raw tuna would have been perfect for this. However, I just wasn’t willing to buy tuna from Fiji, so we made due. The chimichurri was fantastic. It could have done with just a shade less of the olive oil and the lemon juice. I used more than the quarter teaspoon of sea salt, which I think was the right call. I enjoyed this straight on the baguette slices, even without the salmon. There was absolutely nothing wrong with using smoked salmon in this recipe, but I do think tuna would have given the dish a ‘cleaner’ taste all around.

I will definitely make this chimichurri again.