Greetings and happy November 18. On the national celebrations calendar it is also national Vichyssoise day. That’s a potato leek cream soup! Sounds delicious and waiting for a vegan to make it better…
However, Vichyssoise is not what I am here to discuss today. Instead I will be talking about pesto, including a recipe, variations, and uses.
Winter is coming! Well, it is already here but there have been some lovely warm flashes. Pesto offers a refreshing, summery, and colourful taste and appearance that will save you from the wintery darkness.
The best part about pesto, and there are so many perks to choose from, includes the ability to make it out of almost anything that you have on hand.
Pesto ranges from bright green to brown to red. Most often, however, it is green. Full of healthy, fresh ingredients like herbs, spinach, and other leafy greens that make your body glow.
Pesto is extremely easy to make vegan, in fact, it may even be more difficult (and expensive) to make it not vegan.
Some of my favourite pesto ingredients include;
Greens:
Spinach, kale, arugula, garlic scapes, basil, oregano, cilantro, parsley, mint, rosemary, and sage
Proteins/thickeners:
Walnuts, cashews, almonds, chickpeas, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, and peanuts
Flavours:
Lemons, limes, apple cider vinegar, garlic, Dijon, white wine, maple syrup
Oils:
Avocado, coconut, olive, or sesame oils
Each combination offers their own flavour profile and theme in a sense. If I were going for a Thai theme on udon noodles, I might use; kale, cilantro, peanuts, lime, garlic, salt, and sesame oil.
If I wanted a delicate but flavourful pesto to go with linguine, I may choose basil, parsley, cashews, white wine, salt, and avocado oil.
The breakdown of how to create a pesto depends on what you will be pairing it with, what you have on hand, and of course allergies and preferences.
Making pesto is incredibly simple if you have some sort of blending machine. Whether it be a food processor, high speed blender, single serve blender, or a blender stick. Otherwise, without one of these appliances, it can be incredibly difficult to make a good, well blended, and pesto worthy pesto.
Pesto is so adaptable, flavourful, and simple that anyone anywhere can make it and love it.
Pesto can also be made a week or so ahead of time which makes meal prepping or saving the greens in your fridge that are about to go bad easy and delicious.
Pesto freezes very well. If stored in an airtight sealed Ziploc bag, it can last months in the freezer. Which is great if you make a huge batch and want to save some for later.
This rarely happens for me, I just get so excited about eating it that it disappears way too quickly. Of course, I remind myself that it is very healthy.
I am still new at making pesto, so the excitement of making it and trying new combinations is still fresh and probably over the top if you have been making pesto since high school. I admit, I am late hopping onto the pesto train.
So far, I have found the best uses for pesto to have a wide range.
This week I plan on using pesto in pasta with sautéed veggies.
Pesto can also be added as a sauce on a sandwich with toppings like tomatoes, tofu bacon, and lettuce.
Pesto is really great topped on barbecue tofu, cauliflower, or tempeh steaks.
It can be thrown into a salad as sort of a vinaigrette type dressing.
Thin it out with oil and drizzle it on top of your buddha bowls, this one I have yet to try.
Top your pizza, use it as pizza sauce, or just dip your soft pizza crusts in it to add some healthy to your pizza night.
You can even eat it with a spoon. It is so good, no one will judge you in your own kitchen!
Lastly, pesto can be used as a marinade or topping for grilled veggies in the oven or on the bbq.
With all of these options of what to do with pesto, I will give you the recipe for my arugula, spinach, walnut pesto that I just made today.
This recipe yields about a cup and a half of pesto which is about enough for pasta serving 2-3 people. Or it can be enough salad dressing for 2 dinner sized salads.
Arugula Spinach Walnut Pesto Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups arugula
2 cups spinach
1 cup walnuts
½ cup avocado oil
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 tsp salt or more to taste
1 lemon squeezed
Directions:
Measure all ingredients, add to blender, or bowl if using blender stick.
Blend all ingredients about 30 seconds to 1 minute until thoroughly blended and completely combined.
Use a spoon to press down greens if needed while blending.
Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week in the fridge, or 2-3 months in the freezer.
Final remarks
Thank you for checking out my pesto recipe and I really hope that you find a combination, if not mine, that works for you.
Enjoy your pesto in another way that I suggested if you don’t like it one way, give pesto a chance to change your life.
I hope this pesto takes you back to the summer when the greens in your garden were abundant, and maybe next summer you can use them for pesto!
Have a wonderful hump day, and don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe.