Friday 28 June 2013

Walnut Pesto

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Gary Moore ~ Parisienne Walkways
James Morrison ft Nelly Furtado ~ Broken Strings
Madeleine Peyroux ~ J'ai Deux Amours
Foo Fighters ~ Still
Joan Jett ~ Misunderstood
Bowes & Morley ~ Freakshow
Natalie Clein ~ Brahms: Cello Sonata #2 in F
Garbage ~ Fix Me Now
Beulah ~ I Can't Wait
The Union ~ What Doesn't Kill You
Joan Jett ~ I Hate Myself For Loving You
The Ting Tings ~ Shut Up and Let Me Go
Queen ~ Love Of My Life
Depeche Mode ~ I Feel You

When enjoying a meal that includes pesto..I often find myself sitting there in disbelief that I avoided it for so many years. I have a slight issue with oil so I always found shop bought versions too..well..oily! lol. And when I stopped eating dairy it was yet another excuse to avoid the stuff. And then I saw a recipe for vegan pesto and decided to give it a try...and obviously making it myself I was able to control the oiliness. And what do ya know...I loved it.

I started off just having it with pasta and veggies and keeping it simple with the basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. Then ML found a Healing Foods recipe for Almond Pesto and from there I was a self confessed Pesto junkie. And have tried many different types...varying the greens...varying the nuts..flavoured oils...no oils. Loved them all and especially Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Lemon Pesto Panini recipe...two words...picnic heaven!! And I am planning on a whole pesto pizza experiment soon.

ML loves a bargain and often comes home with a large bargain batch of ingredients and this week it was basil. And instantly it was a case of what we could use in our stocks to make a good batch of Pesto. No pine nuts..not enough almonds...but we did have a bag of walnuts.

This ever simple recipe was blitzed up and ML used some in a very tasty Tofu Scramble and last night it was the pastas turn at trying this new recipe. Wholemeal pasta smothered in the walnut pesto and served with some Tenderstem Broccoli made for a wholesome and earthy meal.

Walnut Pesto
Walnut Pesto  Makes approx 2/3 cup of pesto

4 pkts of basil or 1 tightly packed cup of leaves
75g raw walnuts
1 clove of garlic
2-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (or to your preference)

In a food processor or blender roughly blend the basil, garlic and walnuts. Then with the machine running drizzle in the oil until you have your own preferred consistency. Spoon into a sealed container and store in the fridge until needed.

When using with pasta take out the required amount of pesto and allow it to get to room temp before you add it to the pasta.

Dinner..wholesome pasta with Walnut Pesto and Tenderstem Broccoli.
Naturally if you are GF just simply use GF pasta instead.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Friday is a fantastic one...

~Red~