Parsley is a main ingredient in tabbouleh and also in chimi-churri. It preserves fairly well when used in the latter. Here are some recipes:

Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce:
1 cup lightly packed chopped parsley (ideally, flat leaf "Italian" parsley)
3 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves (optional)
2 tablespoons shallot or onion, minced
3/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

(Alternate ingredients lists):
Chimichuri
parsley 4 cups minced
garlic clove 5 diced
oregano (dried) 1/2 tsp
red pepper flakes 1/4 tsp
cumin seed 1 1/2 tsp
paprika 1/2 tsp
salt 1 tsp to taste
black pepper 1 tsp to taste
bay leaf 1
olive oil 1/4 cup
oil 1/2 cup
balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup
white distilled vinegar 1 cup

In a glass bowl combine the minced parsley and diced garlic.
Add the oregano, red pepper flakes, cumin seed, paprika, bay leaf, and salt & pepper.
Add the olive oil and canola oil and mix with a spoon.
Add the balsamic vinegar and white vinegar and mix again.
Taste. Adjust the mixture by adding more of the oils, vinegars, and salt & pepper.

or

1 cup packed fresh parsley
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Tabouleh

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1/2 cup bulghar
2 bunches flat-leaf parsley
1 bunch fresh mint
3 green onions
1 large tomato
6 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1 head romaine lettuce (optional)

Leave the bulghar in water for about 2 hours, then wash and squeeze out. Wash and chop the parsley, mint and green onions very fine. Dice the tomato. Combine all ingredients including bulghar. Add salt to taste, lemon juice, olive oil and mix well.

Serve in a bowl lined with lettuce leaves. This salad can be eaten with a fork, but the traditional way is to scoop up a bite of the mixture in a lettuce leaf and pop it into the mouth.
From "Aramco World" magazine

Lars

I put my parsley (washed & dried) in the food processor and chop it all up and then put it into a ziplock bag and in the freezer.

You can always dry the extra parsley in a dehydrator or in your oven with the light on. I use dried parsley in things like meat loaf, tuna/salmon patties, homemade dried soup mixes and spice mixtures and a "million" other things. LOVE to add a bunch of fresh parsley to Tabouli, but I don't make Tabouli until tomatoes are plentiful from the garden. I always have some parsley growing indoors in the winter and outdoors the rest of the year.

-Grainlady

PARSLEY-PECAN PESTO
(Source: Smith & Hawken Gerdeners' Community Cookbook by Victoria Wise)

Makes 1 heaping cup.

1/2 c. pecan halves
3/4 c. (packed) fresh parsley leaves
3/4 c. (packed fresh basil leaves
2 c.oves garlic, sliced
1-2 T. fresh lemon juice
3/4 c. olive oil
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. fresh ground black pepper

Place the pecans, parsley, basil, garlic, and lemon juice in a food processor or blender and grind as fine as possible. Add the oil, salt, and pepper and continue processing until blended. Use right away or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. After that, flavor fades.

Lars beat me to it - I love chimichurri-type sauces now. The other day I made it to accompany fish. I chopped a bunch of parsley, a bunch of cilantro, added red wine vinegar, garlic, olive oil, a splash of soy sauce and mashed it all together.

Look down to the bottom part of this recipe for the Herb Chicken Salad recipe. It's really good.

Roasted Chicken Salad

Preheat oven to 400°

Coat a rimmed baking pan with cooking spray.

Place chicken breasts skin side up, spray with a little cooking spray and sprinkle with kosher salt. If using skinless, boneless breasts (I prefer skin-on, more flavor) you should still spray and salt.

Roast to 160° internal temp., about 45-55 min, depending on size. Remove from oven, drain grease and cool.

When cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones, cut into cubes about ½ inch in size. Mine are pretty irregular.
Refridgerate until well chilled.

Version #1 DRIED CHERRY AND PECAN

4 C cut up chicken breast meat
2 C celery, sliced thin or coarsely chopped (I do mine in a food processor)
1 C dried red cherries
1 C coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Toss together in a large bowl. Add dressing to desired consistancy. Better a little wet rather than dry, as chicken will absorb dressing as it sits.

Dressing:

1½ C mayo (Hellman's preferred)
¼ C Kikkoman's soy sauce
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp grd pepper

Combine to use in dried cherry salad.

Version #2 HERB CHICKEN SALAD

4 C chopped chicken breasts
6 green onions
1 C loosely packed flat leaf (Italian) parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black ground pepper
1-2 C mayo

Place chicken in a large bowl. Chop green onion and parsley very fine or pulse in food processor, add to chicken and toss. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir in mayo to desired consistancy. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Nancy

I sometimes make parsley butter - softened butter mixed with finely chopped green onions and parsley, with some black pepper, paprika and lemon juice. Shape into rolls and store in the refrigerator or freezer. Good on fish, chicken or green vegetables.

I do what shaun does.

Back when I was little, my mother used to be able to get a bunch of parsley free at the grocery store. It was always just free! I guess the real cost was so low they figured why charge and offered it free to their customers as a perk. They don't do that anymore....

Chop it up and freeze it in a flat pancake. That way you can break off small amounts as required. Toss some into your next batch of scones, or into your scrambled eggs or omelette or frittata, into just about any stew-type dish, over a green salad.

The parsley butter is great with meat or vegetables, but if you also toss in some minced garlic (or garlic juice) it's perfect for spreading on Italian bread to make Garlic Bread.

If you make a white sauce, toss in some parsley, call it Parsley Sauce, and serve it with corned beef or fish. Very yum.

You can also toss some into mashed potatoes.

If you use it fresh, chop it finely and sprinkle over just about anything as a pretty garnish. Very nice if you toss some boiled new (baby) potatoes in melted butter and parsley. You can add a little chopped mint as well.

Think of adding some to a potato salad, too.

There must be 1001 uses for parsley! I couldn't get by without it.

Those are all good uses for parsley.

My solution to the problem is a little different. I suggest growing a small patch of Italian parsley. It is perennial and usually lives for several years before replanting is needed. Just enough for a recipe or garnish can be harvested at any time. It's always available. Even in winter, snow can be dug or brushed away to uncover beautiful, fresh, bright green parsley underneath.

Jim

I'm your contemporary, mudlady, and until just a few years ago, I thought parsley was virtually worthless as far as flavor went and not particularly attractive as a garnish. I'm talking about curly-leaf parsley, because that's all I'd ever been exposed to. But then I discovered the flat-leaf Italian type (things are slow to reach us here in the backwater ...lol), and it put the parsley thing in a whole new light! Now I'm almost as lost without a bunch in the fridge as I would be if there were no onions or garlic or butter on hand.

I use a lot of it when making any type of homemade broth, as you mentioned, and add several sprigs when boiling shrimp. Minced parsley is an automatic addition to any Italian red sauce. It's good in all sorts of soups (chicken noodle and sausage-tortellini come to mind), as well as in chicken pot pies. I think parslied new potatoes and frittatas have already been mentioned.

I add a tablespoon or two of minced Italian parsley to ricotta cheese when using it in lasagna, stuffed manicotti, etc. Also good in cold marinated salads like a black bean-corn combination or the famous "Texas Caviar". No one in my family can tolerate cilantro. We've got that gene that makes it repugnant to us, so I usually substitute Italian parsley whenever cilantro is called for.

The uses really are virtually endless. But I have to say that my opinion of that curly stuff hasn't improved much over the years. :)

sm

This is a great thread. Thanks, Lars, for posting the chimichurri sauce recipes. I wanted to try it sometime. It sounds like a perfect accompaniment to all kinds of things, and it's so full of flavor, that omitting salt won't be a problem. And thanks, Grainlady, for the parsley-pecan pesto recipe. I really like the fact that it doesn't include Parmesan cheese. Daisy, I don't know why my brain never came up with the idea you have of freezing chopped parsley flat in a plastic bag. What a good idea! I wonder if it would work for cilantro too. Of course, fresh is best, but sometimes frozen can spiff up a so-so dish.

Parsley basically brings out the flavor in other things, or enhances the flavor. It can go in just about any savory dish, and just might be able to be used in sweet dishes too, maybe.

Parsley is actually a bienniel. It blooms and goes to seed the second year/season it grows. I let it go to seed, and the babies come up all over the place. Here in the south, it's more of a winter herb than summer, although it'll do so so in the summer. I almost always have some growing, and cut the tops off as I need it.

I don't think anyone's mentioned that you can use it in pesto type sauces along with basil or cilantro.

I just made a parsley caper sauce for brussels sprouts the other night. It was from Deborah Madison's cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. It's quite tasty, not only for Brussels sprouts, but also for other vegetables whether warm or cold. According to Madison, you can use it with fried cheese, vegetable fritters and grains and beans.

Parsley-Caper Sauce

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons small capers, rinsed
1 shallot, finely diced
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or to taste
Salt and freshly milled pepper

Whisk everything together, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Let stand for 10 minutes, then taste again and adjust the seasonings, adding more vinegar or lemon juice if needed. Serve right away. (I've saved the leftovers in the fridge with no problems.)

Sally

Parsley Pesto
1 large bunch Italian parsley leaves
1-2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Put all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Delicious served with chicken or fish.

Parsley Sauce
150ml tahini
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
150ml lemon juice
4 tablespoons water
pinch salt
45g chopped parsley

Beat the tahini until smooth. Add garlic, lemon juice, water and salt. The mixture should resemble a fairly thick cream  add more water if necessary. Stir in parsley and serve with fried fish, grilled lamb or as a dip for raw vegetables.

Parsley Sauce for Roasted Chicken
90g parsley, finely chopped
1 cup thickened cream
1/2-1 teaspoon hot chilli sauce
salt and pepper

Using a whisk, whip the cream. Gently fold in the parsley, then the chilli sauce, salt and pepper. Heat on low heat until just hot. Do not boil. Spoon over roasted chicken.

Parsley Jelly
100g parsley, chopped
1 cup apple, skins and cores included
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 cups water
sugar

Place all ingredients except sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 30 minutes. Strain through a jelly bag overnight. Next day, measure the juice and return to the saucepan. Add 3/4 cup sugar for every cup of water. Then boil rapidly to setting point. Spoon into hot sterilised jars, cover until cool, then seal.

We love parsley and have a big bed of it growing in the front garden. I use it sometimes to add to Annie's salsa recipe. Rhiannon will pick it and eat it in the garden. Also parsley is a good host plant for many catepillars and we find lots of swallow tail cats on them. I also use it in chicken and noodle soup, put some sprigs in beef roast, just about anything. I think the flowers are pretty and the seed heads are really interesting. I enter the flower and seed heads in the county fair each year and the judges wanted seeds from it last year to grow for themselves.

Stacie
girlsingardens

Parsley caper sauce! Oh, that sounds good! Thanks for posting that.

Tabouleh. I swear I think I could live off tabouleh.

When we have vine ripened tomatoes in the summer. I like to make a Turkish salad - equal sized small cubes of tomatoes, peeled and seeded cucumbers, red onion and green pepper, lots of chopped parsley and mint and dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, S & P and a sprinkle of sumac powder.

I keep flat leaf Italian parsley growing all the time in pots and in the garden. It self seeds but I always let a patch go to seed just in case I don't have enough, then I spread it around.

I never used parsley much when I lived in Canada but was introduced to Italian parsley upon my arrival in Spain 40 years ago. Since then I chop it up and use it in just about everything. It's full of vitamins A and C and some minerals but I love the fresh flavour and appearance it gives to food. I just snip a bunch from my windowsill or garden pots when I need some and if I cut too much, put the stems of the rest in a glass of water until the next day or two.

SharonCb

Daisyduckworth's parsley sauce with the tahini sounds good, too. But I have a stupid question. How do I measure a ml? I have a scale that does grams, but I don't think it does ml.s. and I'm thinking that's volume, anyway, am I right, or completely confused? See, I told you it was stupid. I'm having a brain freeze right now.

Sally

Sally yes mls are a volume measure.
One tablespoon = 15 ml so 150 ml would be 10 tablespoons or 2/3 a standard measuring cup.

SharonCb

Parsley is also very good for you. High in vitamins A, C, & K. I never have any go to waste unless I completely forget it's in the veggie drawer.

Think of 5ml/5g as 1 teaspoon, and work from there. Sharon's estimate is correct - think 5fl.oz. There are 250ml to a cup. Don't worry about precision in conversions.

Thanks, Sharon and Daisy.

Sally