Everyday cilantro sauce
The gentle green one. Everything on the plate gets brighter and nobody loses an eyebrow.
At a Glance
Story
If cilantro tastes like soap to someone at your table, believe them. It is genetic, an olfactory-receptor variant that makes the herb's aldehydes read as soap rather than citrus, and no amount of telling them it's delicious will switch the gene off. Blitzing with lime is the kindest thing you can do for them, since bruising the leaves and adding acid mellow those aldehydes considerably.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cilantroleaves and tender stems (packed, about one big bunch)
- 1 clove garlicsmall, this sauce is not about the garlic
- 1 limezest and juice
- ½ jalapeñoseeds out (optional, for a polite nudge of heat)
- ⅓ cup neutral oil
- 1 tbsp cold watermore to loosen
- salt
Method
Zhoug's diplomatic cousin. Where that one arrives armed, this one smooths things over: no cardamom, barely any garlic, heat strictly by invitation. It is the sauce the chipotle glazed chicken bites stir into their rice, and it belongs on tacos, eggs and most things you sear.
- Drop the cilantro, garlic, jalapeño if using, lime zest and juice into the food processor and pulse to a rough chop, scraping down once.
- With the motor running, stream in the oil, then the water, until it moves like a loose pesto. Season with salt, taste, and add more lime if it reads flat rather than more salt.
- Into a jar it goes. It keeps four or five days in the fridge, and the colour holds best if you float a spoonful of oil on top. Stir before using.
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