My garden is producing spinach and arugula at an alarming rate! My refrigerator is full
of food storage bags filled with fresh produce, grown organically and pesticide free. I was thinking this morning that I needed to do something different.
My husband is getting tired of the same old salads. Why not make a pesto and just
combine both greens with fresh basil from the herb pot? This is what we came
up with and it is delicious! Most recipes for pesto call for pine nuts, which can be expensive. I already had some almond meal so I decided to use that instead. It tastes
great. Walnuts are another good substitute. Just be creative. Fresh is better and you
can gear it to your own taste. That is what pesto is all about.
Ingredients:
2 cups packed fresh greens
1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.
3 cloves of garlic or more if you like it stronger.
Directions:
Put the greens in the food processor and pulse them with some olive oil.
Pulse in a food processor with olive oil to the desired consistency
I used arugula, spinach, and basil with the stems removed. Add the chopped almonds or walnuts. I used an almond meal made from 100% almonds that was already ground into a meal so I used a heaping 1/4 cup of that as a substitute. Add a little more olive oil and pulse to blend. Add the grated cheese and garlic, some more olive oil, and pulse some more. We used a granulated garlic and put in about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon. You can roast the garlic to make it a little smoother and mix with some fresh minced garlic for some punch. Some people will want to add salt also, but we did not.
Toss pesto with pasta or serve on crackers or oven toasted bread
Serve over cooked pasta, oven toasted bread, or favorite crackers.
