Hi I’m back with a new recipe, the best pesto in town! I apologize for disappearing for a while, but throughout this pandemic we have been living through, I just could not find the motivation, nor the time to keep up with my recipe blog. It’s been a crazy few month, however I decided I must get back to it and share my recipes with the world, as my passion and mission is to teach people how to eat and live healthy. Without great delicious recipes you cannot. So I am back!
Over the last 3 month I must say that although I have not been posting my recipes, I have been super busy in the kitchen developing recipes, experimenting with new things, and cooking a lot. So needless to say all that work will now pay off into many many posts of recipes for you all to read, try, and enjoy.
Pesto
One of my favorite sauces to make is this best pesto in town. There is something about the flavors of the basil, that just get to me and I want to add it to everything. I used to buy pesto sauce thinking it was something complicated or not worth making myself, but boy was I wrong. This is such an easy sauce to make in minutes. It keeps in the fridge for weeks and it tastes great with just about anything. It doesn’t compare to anything you can buy in the store, I promise.
Today I will share this easy peasy recipe of the best pesto in town for you to enjoy. If you grow basil on your balcony like I do then it is even better because you can use it up so it doesn’t go to waste. I don’t know about you but my basil grows like crazy and I need to trim and use it up before the leaves fall off and waste away.
This is how we do it
All you will need for this recipe are a few ingredients and a food processor. In my recipe I like to mix kale with the basil to add more nutritional content and also some bulk to the sauce. You can substitute the kale for spinach, arugula, or any other green you want. All will work and each green with slightly modify the flavor, but all still extremely delicious. For example the kale or arugula will make the flavor sharper, while spinach will make it a soft taste.
The other ingredients I use are olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, lemon, and parmesan cheese. Again all ingredients except for the lemon, and garlic are interchangeable. If you prefer other nuts then switch them out. I have used cashews, and almonds all delicious. For the cheese if you want this dairy free you can use a vegan parmesan cheese (i like this one) or 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast instead. For the oil, I find olive to be the most flavorful, however if you prefer avocado oil that works well too and still provides many health benefits.
When I place ingredients in food processor, I like to chop my greens first, then add other ingredients and slowly pour oil while machine is running to emulsify it all together and get a creamy sauce. Be sure to taste it and adjust lemon, and salt at end to get it just right to your liking. Happy Cooking!
Be sure to try out more of my Recipes from the blog…
Recipe: Best Pesto in Town
Best Pesto in Town
Creamy and delicious, kale and basil pesto, is packed with greens and tastes great on everything!
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup packed kale leaves
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese (for vegan version add 1 tbsp nutritional yeast)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- In a food processor add basil and kale leaves, and garlic cloves. Pulse/chop up until broken down.
- Add in pine nuts and parmesan cheese and pulse again.
- Once everything is chopped up finely and incorporated, add lemon juice.
- Turn food processor on high speed and drizzle olive oil in through tube. The color of pesto will get brighter green and it will turn into a lovely paste.
- Remove from food processor taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- If you do not like kale you can substitute for spinach or all basil.
- Nuts can be substituted for almonds or cashews
- for vegan/dairy free version use vegan parmesan cheese or 1 tbsp nutritional yeast.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 118Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 4mgSodium 284mgCarbohydrates 5gFiber 1gSugar 0gProtein 2g
Nutrition calculator is not 100% accurate as it is computer generated.