Pesto is a great condiment to keep in the fridge when you want to put together a quick meal. Add it to pasta or pizza base, use it as a salad dressing, spread it on toast or use it as a dip – it’s this versatile. In this recipe I replaced parmesan with nutritional yeast flakes, which makes it vegan friendly and also healthier for your waistline.
I am writing this blog post still overwhelmingly elated after my first Healthy Eating Master Class last week at Rawberry Café, Winchester. Although the nerves were riding admittedly high weeks before the event, I managed to conquer them somewhat after demonstrating the first recipe, once I saw the audience tucking into the pots of overnight protein chocolate ‘zoats’ – soaked oats with grated zucchini (or courgette if you’re British) and ‘carrot cake oats’ that I lovingly prepared for them to taste.
If you have been following my humble journey for a little while, you know how much of a big step it was for me to host a master class demonstrating some of my favourite recipes when only a few years ago I was a helpless cook who would be setting herself for failure before she even started. It took thousands of baby steps for me to start believing in my abilities and begin to replace the ‘I can’t do it’ attitude with ‘I’ll give it my best shot and see what happens’… Isn’t it fascinating what we can conquer with the power of mind? I truly believe that each human being is capable of achieving anything they dream about, as long as they put their mind to it. It took me a long time to re-wire my brain to this ‘setting’ (I share my favourite personal development resources here), although I have a long way to go yet.
Anyway, I totally digressed. Back to the green pesto recipe, which I made for the pizza base sauce at the above mentioned masterclass (I sneaked in an extra ingredient to it this time – kale – to make it even more nutritious). It received a lot of thumbs up from the wonderful audience I had the pleasure to share my evening with, so I’m happy to post the recipe on my blog.
This pesto will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, so it’s a great time saver when you haven’t got much time for cooking (read: that’s me every day!) I love using it as pasta sauce – combine cooked pasta with a tablespoon of pesto, add some roasted veggies and you have yourself a delicious and healthy meal.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my humble space.
Healthfully yours,
Tania x
BASIL PESTO (DAIRY FREE, GLUTEN FREE, VEGAN)
Ingredients
- 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp pine nuts (you cab sub for pumpkin seeds)
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- Optional: 1/2 cup kale leaves, stalks removed
- Water* (around 3-5 tbsp)
Instructions
- 1. Combine all ingredients apart from water in a food processor or blender and process for 3-4 minutes until well combined.
- 2. Whilst the motor is still running, slowly start adding some water, a tablespoon at a time (I used around 3 tbsp), to reach the desired consistency.
- 3. Transfer the mixture into a jar. It’ll keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
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