I am a diehard waste-not-want-not kind of girl from way back. In the past, I tended to make a lot of surprises from whatever was left in the kitchen, and they could either be great or they could turn out as what my kids used to call “refrigerator soup.”

But every once in a while, I hit the jackpot. 

This story actually starts last week, when I made potato salad and cole slaw for our July 4th picnic. I asked my husband, who does the shopping at our house, to pick up 5 pounds of potatoes and a bunch of parsley, among other ingredients. He brought home 15 pounds of potatoes and three bunches of parsley, but I used just two of the latter. And there are still quite a few potatoes in the pantry, though we are making our way through them!

So when I went scrounging in the bottom drawer of the fridge this morning, I discovered the last bag of parsley. I was a little nervous to open it (given the sadly rotted dill I found back there a couple of weeks ago) but I took a deep breath and then opened the bag. It was beautiful. Fresh, fragrant, and still a little bouncy. 

I rinsed the parsley, set it on the cutting board, and trimmed the stems by one-half inch or so, just enough to remove the frayed brownish edges. Then I peeled four cloves of fresh garlic, and measured out 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup roasted cashews, 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt, and two tablespoons of water. 

I set three of the garlic cloves and all the olive oil in a small frying pan and turned it to medium-low heat. I let it cook very slowly for about 15 minutes, until the garlic was cooked completely through, soft and caramel color. It smelled scrumptious. I turned off the heat, and left the garlic and oil to cool. You can make this part earlier in the day, or even a few days before, because the pan will need to cool to room temperature — or nearly — so the parsley doesn’t get cooked in the Vitamix. 

I cut the remaining raw garlic clove into a few slices. Then I placed the parsley in the Vitamix (stem side up) and added the water, cashews, salt, and entire contents of the small frying pan. I ran the Vitamix up to high speed, used the plunger a few times to mix everything, and then let it run 45-60 seconds until everything was smooth and bright green. The texture was perfect, but I started with dripping wet parsley, so you should feel free to sprinkle in more water, just a bit at a time, if necessary, to obtain the desired consistency. 

This is amazing stuff. You can spoon it over roasted potatoes (we have a lot of potatoes to use up!), or a bowl of quinoa. You could spread it on bruschetta, or use it as a dip for tortilla chips or kohlrabi and carrot sticks. You could spread some on corn prior to roasting, or put a small bowlful on the table to let folks use however they like. It’s very special, and I hope you find the time to try making it.