I grow my own herbs and always use fresh basil, so I always have tons of it in the growing seasons. If you have a couple of basil plants, and know how to prune them correctly, so the plant becomes bushier and bigger, you will end up with more basil than you will need, so making pesto is ideal. Just give the plants time and patience in the beginning to grow the right way, and prune as it grows. I learned about pruning basil plants from this video, and i have never looked back, i basically drown in basil most of the growing season. I batch make pesto and freeze so i have fresh pesto the entire year.
Growing basil makes this very affordable, and to make it even cheaper, you can substitute the pine nuts with almonds.
Use this pesto in sandwiches, wraps, burgers, as a dressing for salads, in a lasagna, stew or pasta dish.
Makes about 200 ml (6-7 oz)
Ingredients
- 5-6 big (!) handfuls of fresh basil
- 90 g pine nuts (0.20 lbs) (alternatively substitute with almonds)
- 1.2 dl good extra virgin olive oil (½ cup)
- 4-5 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- Salt and pepper to taste
What you will need
- A bowl and stick blender or A blender
- 1 measuring cup
Instructions
- Wash all of the basil and let dry.
- Put the basil, nuts, olive oil and nutritional yeast in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like more nutritional yeast add a bit more and blend again for a few seconds.
- If you make this pesto ahead of time and store it, you will find out that all the nutritional yeast and the pine nuts soak up a lot of the olive oil and it becomes a much firmer paste. If you wanna store this pesto then add olive oil as needed when you use it. I choose to only use 1.2 dl / ½ cup, and it is a perfect consistency when used right away.
- Store in a tight lid container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Enjoy !
