Nut-Free Pesto Recipe!
If there’s one thing I love cooking with more than anything, it would have to be basil! It smells delicious, tastes amazing and can be used so many ways but our favourite thing to make is Nut Free Pesto. We make ours without pine-nuts so that our little guy can take pasta salad with him to school. Yes, even the kid is in on our basil obsession!
I like to add in Spinach to our pesto. This adds that little extra boost of vitamins plus makes it extra green! The Spinach doesn’t affect the flavour at all, which is a bonus plus, it’s one of the few times when the kid doesn’t complain when I add spinach to something đ He seems to think he can “taste” it in smoothies!
I do find that when you add a little extra spinach, you either need a bit more garlic or to increase the amount of Parmesan cheese! I enjoy extra garlic but that’s just me! Pesto can be used for so many things too, not just plain pasta. It tastes great as a cold pasta salad with your favourite vegetables and we like to stuff chicken breast with Pesto and mozzarella cheese! It even tastes great on roasted potatoes. The Pesto possibilities are endless but we love to pair our Pesto pasta with my Homemade Bruschetta!
Below I’ve included an easy to print Nut Free Pesto recipe that makes a full mason jar that will last at least a week or two in your fridge. Freezing it in ice cube trays is another option so that you can just pop them in the pan as you need it! Once our garden is up and growing, we’ll be eating pesto more and more throughout the summer. What do you like to eat your pesto with? Let me know so I can try something new!
- 1 bag of Basil Leaves
- 1/2 Bag of Spinach
- 2-3 Cloves of Garlic
- 1/4-1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
- 1/2-1 Cup of Olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Lemon
- Cut the stems off your basil and spinach and give them all a good rinse. Dry off the water.
- Toss your Basil Leaves and Spinach into your blender/food processor.
- Remove the skin from the garlic.
- Add in your garlic, Parmesan cheese and then your 1/2 cup of Olive Oil
- Squeeze in the juice of half of the lemon.
- Add a pinch of both salt and pepper.
- Slowly chop up the items in the blender. You may need to squish it down as you go, just make sure the blender is off!
- Add more oil as need to get a nice smooth consistency. You may need to add additional cheese to taste!
- Pour in a jar and serve on your favourite pasta or dish!
