Dill Pesto

The refreshing dill combined with the smooth rich avocado balanced with the crunch of the cashews makes for a nice alternative to the usual pesto. I eat pesto frequently as it is a perfect topping for raw breads, raw crackers, zucchini pasta, and much much more. So switching it up is a nice way to keep things interesting in my plate without making huge changes.

This pesto came about because of all the ingredients I had in my fridge. If you don’t have parsley, try another herb. If you don’t have spinach use another leafy green. The main ingredients that I wouldn’t change here are the dill and the avocado.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped dill
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 avocado
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 large clove of garlic

Steps:

• put everything in a food processor and blend until desired consistency
• will keep in the fridge for a few days, not sure how long though as we always eat it quickly 🙂

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Basil Pesto Sauce

The basil has been so lush and abundant at the farmers market that I just cannot help and buy a few bundles every time I smell it!! For that reason, I have been making a lot of pesto this summer. I love pesto for how versatile it is: on pizza, with raw crackers, as a dip with veggies, as a spread on a sandwich, with zucchini pasta, you get the drift 😉 

This is my version of pesto. I omit the pine nuts, mainly because those are not something I ever have on hand. When creating recipes, I try to create things with ingredients that are frequently in my kitchen. It keeps things simple and convenient. 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups tightly packed basil
• 1 cup spinach
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 TBS lemon juice
• 1 TBS nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

• put everything in the food processor and blend until desired consistency. I left it a little chunky this time because I felt like 🙂 Sometimes I like it really smooth and will process it longer.