Nothing beats homemade herb pesto. It is a lot tastier than the store-bought kind as well as filled with phytonutrients and vitamins. I have a few variations of this recipe in my Spring and Summer recipe e-book but the below recipe is the one I began with years ago when I first started the blog. I often call this my magic green sauce because it is super adaptable, delicious and you can use it in many many ways.
What other herbs or nuts can you use in herb pesto?
Whichever you like. Here, the herbs I mention are parsley, basil and cilantro. Basil because everyone associates traditional pesto Genovese with this fragrant herb. Parsley and cilantro because they are a lot easier to find all year round. But this isn’t an exhaustive list. You can also opt for dill, chervil, rocket/arugula, carrot tops, or mix and match them depending on what you’ve got on hand and what you are making it for. For example, a dill pesto on salmon steaks is pretty amazing. And rocket pesto on toast with some mozzarella and parma ham rocks. Same for the nuts. You can use pine nuts, but I often use raw cashews or almonds. As for the Parmesan, you can omit it (which I often do) or swap it for nutritional yeast if you want a vegan solution. If you are using it as a sauce for fish/chicken or meat or a dressing to veggies, you can add vinegar. And if you really want to go rogue, add capers, anchovies, omit nuts and cheese and transform it into salsa verde. The base is always the same though: herbs and olive oil
How can you use pesto?
Herb pesto can be used in so many ways:
- Tossed into pasta
- As a spread for toast, sandwiches, wraps, blinis or crostinis
- As a dip
- As a sauce to serve with fish/chicken or even steak. In the e-book, you’ll find a green goddess tarragon version of it on poached chicken and it is oh-so-good.
- As a sauce to spread over your fish or chicken before putting it in the oven
- As a base for salad dressing
- A marinade for vegetables before you grill them
- Tossed into whisked eggs for a great omelet
- Swirled into a quiche or savory tart for added flavor. For example, a tomato-basil savory tart or a salmon/parsley pesto quiche.
Tips
- Although lemon is not an ingredient in traditional pesto, I always add it because it heightens the taste AND it really helps get the color vibrant green and keep it that way for a little longer.
- If you want to store it in the fridge, cover the surface of the pesto with a little bit of olive oil so that it doesn’t darken as much.
Ingredients
- 4 cups/240 g parsley, cilantro and/or basil, chopped and packed
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup/125 ml olive oil
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 tsp salt or more depending on taste
1 clove garlic (optional)
Directions:
- Blend all ingredients in a mixer for 15 seconds – stop mixing just before it gets creamy
- Taste and adjust salt/pepper seasoning
- Can be consumed right away or stored in the fridge for 2 days.
