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Rocket Walnut Pesto
Hey presto, its pesto! This vegan pesto is the besto, forget about the resto!
Pesto seems to be a little old hat these days, with all the hipster cafes saying bye bye to Italy and heading further afield to find condiments to zhoosh up their toasties and breakfast bowls (enter stage left zhoug, harissa & ajvar). But I stand firm on thinking it should be in everyone’s fridge, because it’s tasty and versatile. I’m sure plenty of nonnas out there would freak out by my suggestion of using anything but the traditional ingredients, but let’s just assume they’re deaf or too busy making you feel guilty about not visiting them enough to pass comment on this cheese-less jar of green goodness.
- 1 cup loosely packed basil leaves (10g)
- 2 cups firmly packed rocket leaves (60g)
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1 clove garlic (crushed)
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Pinch of chilli flakes
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Put the rocket, basil, garlic and walnuts in your food processor and pulse a few times to start breaking them down.
Add all the other ingredients and pulse together. You may need to scrape down the sides a couple of times. Keep whizzing until you get the desired consistency. You don’t want it super smooth, leave some texture.
Makes about 1 1/4 cups.
This stuff keeps in the fridge in an airtight jar for a week or so. How to use it?
– spoon it on roast veggies
– smear it on and bake your fish or chicken with it
– stir it into soup
– add it to your eggs
– toss it through veggie noodles or cauliflower rice
– spread it on Smith St Paleo bread and top with goodies like ham, tomato, salad
