Tomorrow is Maundy or Holy Thursday. In some countries it is called Green Thursday and traditionally you eat something green. I decided for a green sauce made of béchamel and parsley, like my mother did, when I was a child.
Maundy Thursday has many different names, I know it as Green Thursday or Holy Thursday. It is mainly a Christian church holiday. But in Europe Easter is still a main holiday and celebrated like Christmas. I for myself go a little back to the roots when it still was the celebration of the return of the nature with spring.
I don’t want to explain the religious aspect of Easter, but the traditions in the different countries. Here in Europe in the different countries we not only have different names, also a great diversity of traditions. Sweden for example goes back to before the Christians came and children go from house to house to ask for candies or Easter eggs while they are dressed as witches. In the Czech Republic and in Germany people eat something green like green vegetables or a green sauce. No church bells until Holy Saturday. In some countries all businesses are closed. In European countries I know only of Holy Friday everything is closed.
So, well, I decided to have a green smoothie as a morning starter. The green came from some ‘weeds’ out of the garden like lemon mint, strawberry leaves and bishopsweed (appropriate, isn’t it?). I mixed them with a banana, cinnamon and some Cashew milk. Was delicious!
Later for lunch I prepared the green sauce I remember from my childhood. My mother, I think, once a week prepared a sauce based on a simple béchamel and parsley. With it goes a scalded sausage and boiled potatoes. Easier it is not possible. I boiled the sausage and the potatoes and then prepared a béchamel base with just a little good butter, a bit of gluten-free flour and cashew milk. I added some salt and pepper and then the parsley I previously chopped up.
It is a dish I didn’t make for a very long time. The last time I think when my mother was still alive, and she always wanted only meals she knew all her life. Which was a challenge to me because she never taught me her cooking.
For the sauce you can interchange all of it. Use the flour you normally use, every milk is possible as well. Flour if very nutty can alternate the taste like also the milk. Coconut milk maybe is too strong. Choose a more flavorless one. How much milk? Then is something to decide at the moment. When you whisk in the milk, add only a little bit every time and whisk. You see how thick the sauce is and how thick you want it. Make it just that little bit thinner that when you add all the parsley it has the right consistence.
As for the parsley, you can use any kind of soft herbs. The herbs give the taste! There is the well-known Frankfurter Grüne Sauce (Frankfurt’s green sauce) that has 7 herbs (chives, parsley, sorrel, burnet, cress, chervil and borage) and is made more like a mayonnaise. The season for the green sauce in Frankfurt starts on Maundy Thursday and ends with the first frost in autumn/fall.
Guten Appetit!
- 2-3 tbsp chopped parsley
- 20 g grassfed butter or ghee
- 20 g flour (gluten-free)
- 200 ml cashew milk (or any other)
- salt&pepper
- In a pot melt the butter or ghee. Leave the pot on a very little heat. Whisk in the flour. Be careful that no nubs are forming. Add slowly the milk and whisk heartily, it must be always a very smooth, even sauce. As you add the milk and whisk you can see the consistence and add more milk if you want the sauce thinner. Make it a thin cream, that is perfect.
- Take away from the heat, add salt and pepper to taste and then stir in the chopped parsley.
You can change the flour to any other. I used a gluten-free flour mix, but you can also use rice flour e.g. Use a very fine one in order to get a smooth béchamel.
Also the milk can be chosen by your preference. Don't take a very tasteful one, though, as you want the taste of parsley only.
Of course you don't need to use parsley. You can change to any other herb. Basil would be great as well. Or whatever you have in your garden growing. Mix different herbs together. Chop them always very finely.