The ultimate homemade pesto
A and I like to play a game sometimes where we discuss what our best life purchases have been since we got married - as well as our worst. Currently our top three “bests” list goes something like this: 1) Winston the cat (we actually acquired him from a friend and never really bought him, but vet bills count here), 2) Our IKEA dog pillow I named Vernon, and 3) Our basil plant from Trader Joe’s.
For those of you who are interested, our worst list goes: 1) Buying “Apples to Apples” before “Cards Against Humanity” came out, 2) A meat tenderizer we got a few weeks before going vegan, 3) our IKEA feather duster that just became Winston’s favorite toy.
OK, end rambling. The reason that the basil plant makes the top three list is because it was only $3, it was grown organically before reaching us, and now that I have mastered pesto, we get fresh pesto every week! This recipe is so insanely easy that I can whip up a batch every Sunday when we do our bulk cooking (we typically make some guacamole and a weekly baked treat on Sundays as well).
I seriously put this stuff on everything too because it adds a punch of freshness and it tastes like heaven. I use it on breakfast toast, sandwiches, even as a pasta topping. It is yum city.
Here is how I make my ultimate pesto, and by the way it’s vegan too!
You’ll Need:
2 Cups fresh picked basil (tightly packed)
2 Large garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
½ Cup walnuts, halved (traditional pesto is made with pine nuts so they also work well here, but I love the fattiness of the walnuts)
½ Cup olive oil (avocado oil works great too!)
½ Fresh squeezed lemon
¼ Tsp sea salt
¼ Tsp fresh ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients except olive oil into a food processor and pulse until it is coarsely ground.
Once the mixture reaches that texture, pour the olive oil in through the top in a stream, pulsing occasionally.
Once your pesto is done you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Mine has never made it longer than a week because I always eat it too fast, but I wouldn’t suggest keeping it longer than that anyways because it will loose it’s fresh punch. This recipe makes roughly one cup of pesto.
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