Oi gente!

This bright chimichurri salad is ready in a breeze. It’s made with a handful of delicious ingredients, that get even better after we toss them in this cilantro chimichurri dressing. The perfect recipe for meal prepping and summer cookouts! Bye, bye forever boring salads!

Why I love this salad

This simple chimichurri recipe is one of my favorites because its full of flavor and it’s perfect for meal prep. I usually make my batch of chimichurri early in the week, then off I go sprinkling it everywhere like its pixie dust for as long as it lasts – because, let’s face it, chimichurri is just great on everything! Including salads!

This salad is also perfect to bring along to summer cookouts, bbq parties, picnics, potlucks, you name it. It’s a great side dish for grilled meats, it’s easy to put together and everyone loves it!

What you need to make this chimichurri salad

All you need are these 4 simple ingredients plus a batch of chimi to throw this salad together:

cooked orzo pasta
halved sweet grape tomatoes
fresh ciliegine mozzarella (the little balls)
arugula

The full cilantro chimichurri recipe is here. And the great news is, all you need to do to prepare it, is throw all the ingredients in a blender buzz, buzz, buzz, and boom! The dressing is ready.

Tips on how to make chimichurri salad

1. Make the chimichurri dressing the night before, if possible – whenever I can, I prepare my batch of chimi the night before so I know all the flavors will be bright and bold by morning. If you don’t have that kind of time, make sure to prepare your batch at least 20 minutes before you intend to use it. This will give your chimichurri some time to release all the flavors!

2. Add the arugula last – If you’re making this salad to bring to an event, or to use as meal prep for the week, make sure to not add the arugula until you’re ready to eat (or as last minute as possible). If you add the arugula then let it sit there in the dressing for hours and hours, the arugula will start to wilt as time goes by. Adding it last minute will ensure the arugula stays nice and fresh!

Make this chimichurri salad as:

A side salad for lunch or dinner – this salad is an AWESOME side dish for simple oven baked, or grilled chicken and pan fried or grilled steaks!
A whole meal in itself – we like this salad just by itself from time to time as well. It has enough delicious flavors to make it a light lunch or dinner.
The perfect cookout salad – impress your familia and amigos next time you need to bring a side dish to a cookout, picnic, or bbq party. You can bring along any leftover chimichurri as well for topping just about anything that comes out of the grill. You’ll be everyone’s hero!

Try these other delicious chimichurri recipes:

Chimichurri Wings

Chimichurri Salmon

This chimichurri salad pairs perfectly with:

Brazilian Caipirinha Cocktails

Picanha – Brazilian Culotte Steaks

Grilled Butterflied Chicken

5 from 9 votes