Ingredients
- 200g of greens (soft herbs, or you can mix these with a few leaves of nasturtiums or dandelions from the garden or greens like kale or spinach that are languishing in your fridge)
- 50g of your nut/seed of choice (toasted – optional)
- Juice of one lemon
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
- 100ml of olive oil
- 50g of cheese or vegan alternative
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Nutritional yeast (optional)
Method
Put your greens, nuts, lemon, garlic and cheese in a blender. Pulse them until they are well mixed, but not completely blended.
Incorporate the oil to emulsify. I like to keep mine with texture, but if you prefer, you can blend it until it is smooth.
If you are doing bigger quantities, put it in a sterilised jar and cover it with oil.
It will keep for about a month, or even longer if frozen.
Notes . . .
One of my main sources of inspiration for preserves or condiments is the discounted bin at my local supermarket . . . I call it liberating the plant!
Just the other day, there were some peppery salad leaves on offer, more than I could use in a salad that week. The best way to use them, them?
Put them in a pesto.
I know people usually see pesto as a basil condiment . . . but the word pesto comes from the Italian “pestare”, which means pounding, so any paste that you make by crushing and mixing vegetables can be a pesto.
The Italians do a red pesto with tomatoes!
Leaves like rocket and watercress work really well as a pesto, without any basil. You can also use kale or cavalo nero.
When it comes to the nuts, traditionally you would use pine nuts. I am partial to cashew nuts instead, which give the pesto a creaminess and sweetness. However, you could easily use any other nuts that you have at home. Sunflower or pumpkin seeds work really well too.
As for the cheese, you can forego that entirely if you are vegan or vegetarian, as the traditional parmesan cheese uses animal rennet. But if you would still like a umami cheesiness on your pesto, you could easily use another hard cheese – goat’s cheese works particularly well. Or, if you have some at hand, you could add nutritional yeast.