I was first introduced to Pesto when my friend Michele C. gave us some with her homemade bread. We ate way too much of the wonderful stuff. :) As my diet changed over the past 2 years, I found that I could not eat Pesto in its original form (parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, olive oil, basil). So my mom discovered that our local Whole Foods Co-op (where she and my brother Charlie work) makes and sells a Spinach Pesto that was perfectly clean! She was able to get the recipe, and after a bit of tweaking, I came up with this recipe. It's ctill very true to the original, but my process is a bit different, and I always aim for a different texture and taste that what you would get at WFC.
But without further ado...here is the recipe for Spinach Pesto.
Spinach Pesto
Baby spinach
walnuts or almonds, chopped fine
garlic, fresh or powdered
lemon juice
basil
oregano
parsley
salt
Yes. There are no measurements. There were some in the original recipe, but the were for a mega batch, and were very difficult to smaller-ize. So this is where you become suddenly adventureous, follow my meager instructions and just wing it. :)
Get out your food processor. Hopefully you have a decently sized one, preferably about the size of your average blender.
Fill it loosely with spinach. Add around a cup of nuts (note on nuts: walnuts are traditional. We found that almonds give it a wonderful taste. A mix of the two is even better.). Make sure you have extra nuts, cause you'll need them.
Add about 2 TBSP pf Lemon juice, 1 TBSP olive oil, and approx. 2 tsp. garlic, 1 tsp. basil, parsley and 1/2 tsp. oregano and salt. You will most likely need to add more galric and salt, but you'll need to taste it first to make sure it isn't too strong. Better to add a little and need to add more than add too much and have it taste bad. :)
Start whirling. :) You will have to stop and push down the spinach, move the nuts around and add more lemon juice if its too dry. Careful not to add too much lemon juice....little at a time...or else you will end up with slop. Add more nuts if its sloppy.
Let me just say that sloppy Pesto is a no-no. It needs to be thick enough to scoop on a spoon without flopping or dripping off. Spreadable, like peanut butter.
Process with whole thing until you get a good consistancy AND a good taste. You want it to taste slightly strong of garlic and smell good of lemon juice. That 's what I look for when I make it.
When you get it to look right and taste right, its best eaten when chilled for a while.
Pesto is sooo versitile. Eat it with crackers, on salad, in sandwiches or burgers, or whatever you want!! :D
thanks for posting this. I have been making it wrong all this time! I thought you used Olive Oil! Ours still tastes terrific but I need to try it this way! =)
ReplyDeleteHave so much been loving eating healthy.
Linda
Oh dear...I do use Olive oil. I forgot. :P
ReplyDeleteOops. Sorry.... ^_^
:goes off to edit post and links:
haha... oh good, glad I said something! thanks Hannah! =)
ReplyDelete