Persillade
on Sep 23, 2018, Updated May 07, 2025
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Persillade is a versatile, fresh parsley-based condiment with endless uses. Serve it with meat, seafood, or vegetables, or potatoes.
This French parsley-based sauce is bright and herbaceous, and so versatile. You can add this fresh green sauce to pretty much anything, and it will perk the meal right up. Try it with grilled foods, roasted foods, stirred into parsley, in a persillade garlic bread. Drizzle some over grilled or roasted vegetables. Mash some into a baked potato. Toss some cooked rice or grains with it.
Anywhere you would think to use pesto, gremolata, or chimichurri sauce, this works. Recently, I topped some roasted butternut squash and whipped fresh ricotta with this persillade, and it was a stunner of a side dish.
Table of Contents
What Is Persillade?
Persillade is at its base a mixture of parsley and garlic, a fresh and vibrant green sauce that is used as a condiment for all kinds of dishes, from green beans to pork chops. The word is French, and it comes from the French word for parsley, which is persil. The flavor is bright and fresh and herbal, and it perks up whatever it’s added to.
Parsley is always the main ingredient of persillade; there is always garlic, and usually extra-virgin olive oil and salt. Other herbs might be added, such as tarragon and thyme, and sometimes anchovies, capers, or cornichon pickles. Lemon is another frequently added ingredient.
Like pesto, like chimichurri sauce, persillade is the kind of recipe many cooks have their own version of. In this slightly pumped-up recipe, I added capers, scallions, lemon juice and zest, thyme, and optional red pepper flakes. However, with no anchovies, this persillade recipe will still work for vegetarians. And check out the variations; you can basically leave out any ingredient you don’t have (except for the parsley and garlic!)
Now, also like the other herb-based sauces mentioned, this is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle. I have a mortar and pestle, but more often than not, I use my food processor. But if you have a mortar and pestle, and the desire and the forearm strength to get to it, go get ‘em. You’ll have a more authentic texture, and the ingredients will integrate better.
Ingredients
- Fresh parsley – The key ingredient in any traditional persillade sauce recipe.
- Scallions (green onions)
- Garlic – The other key ingredient in persilade!
- Capers
- Lemon – Both fresh lemon juice and zest are used in this recipe.
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Red pepper flakes – For a little spicy kick.
How to Make Persillade
- Blend the produce: Place the parsley, scallions, garlic, thyme, capers, and lemon juice and zest into a food processor and pulse until chopped and well combined.
- Add oil and season: With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil, and let the motor run until it is nicely combined with a fairly smooth consistency. Add the pepper flakes, if using, and season with salt and pepper.
FAQs
Classic French persillade is a simpler sauce, really highlighting the parsley and a bit of raw garlic. Argentinean chimichurri sauce usually packs a bit more punch with some vinegar, red pepper flakes, oregano, and perhaps cilantro added.
Gremolata is an Italian-based parsley condiment, and usually features lemon zest in the mix, often along with other herbs, while persillade focuses on parsley and only occasionally includes citrus. This persillade recipe does include citrus and some other additional ingredients.
Persillade is very versatile. This French parsley sauce can be added to potatoes, used to dress a cooked steak, grilled lamb chops, or roasted chicken, on grilled vegetables, added to pasta salads or rice, stirred into salad dressings, and even used as a sandwich spread. It’s also great with shrimp and seafood.
Variations
- Skip the capers.
- Skip the thyme.
- Add 2 anchovy filets instead of the capers.
- Skip the lemon juice and zest.
- Skip the red pepper flakes.
- Skip the scallions and add 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic.
Storage
Persillade will keep in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for at least 5 days.
You can freeze persillade by putting it into a freezer-proof zip-top bag, pressing out the excess air, then sealing it. Label the bag, freeze, then break off pieces as you need them for cooking. Let it defrost if using it as a garnish, but if added to soup or another hot dish, you can add it frozen.
What to Serve With Persillade
More Condiment Recipes
Once you start to realize what happens when you have one or two or maybe even three little containers of versatile condiments in your fridge, the options start to bloom and mushroom. Whipped Ricotta is one such condiment. Check it out, and see how many ways it will improve your life. Sriracha Sauce is another. Don’t even get me started on vinaigrettes. Also try:
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Persillade
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
- 1 cup sliced scallions
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)
- 1 tablespoon capers (rinsed)
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Place the parsley, scallions, garlic, thyme (if using), capers, and lemon juice and zest into a food processor and pulse until chopped and well combined.
- With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil, and let the motor run until it is nicely combined. Add the pepper flakes (if using), and season with salt and pepper.
