Dairy-Free Pesto
A simple an easy recipe to have on hand to make any recipe more exciting.
You can add to eggs, chicken, fish, vegetables, pasta rice or even use a a dip.
Basil is a herb that is easy to grow in the garden during the spring and summer months. The more you cut the leaves, the more basil you get. It just keeps growing and growing!
Making your own pesto means you can control what goes in. If you read the back of a jar from the supermarket often it often lists preservatives or ingredients you’ve never heard of. Growing your own means you limit pesticides, herbicides and other unwanted chemicals too. You can also control the taste or dietary requirements, making it dairy-free, preservative-free or even nut-free.
This may be controversial for many, but I like making my pesto garlic free. I don’t enjoy the taste of raw garlic. I’d much rather add garlic to whatever I’m cooking first and then add the pesto in later.
I’ve shared my recipe below but you can tweak it to fit your taste buds or what you have in your kitchen at the time.
Dairy-Free Pesto
What you need:
2 cups Basil*
1/2 cup cashews**
1/2 cup olive oil***
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (optional)
1-2 cloves of garlic (optional)
What to do:
Blend together until smooth.
Add to any dish and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer
Notes:
* you can use a combination of any herbs you have. I like adding a mix of oregano, thyme, parsley and/or coriander
** you can use walnuts, pine nuts or make it nut-free and use 1 cup of frozen peas! I keep frozen peas in the freezer for this reason.
*** try with bone broth or vegetable broth
