Glenn's Vegan Pesto


Photo: flickr user moria
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Ingredients

Basil (the fresher the better) enough to loosely stuff your food processor
Garlic (fresh or powdered)
If fresh, one clove per fistful of basil, more if you like garlic, a little less
teaspoon If powdered, one per fistful of basil (more or less)
Nutritional Yeast (NOT brewer's yeast) (this is to substitut
Olive oil (cold pressed extra virgin, best quality available is best) (the taste of the Raw or roasted UNSALTED sunflower seeds (about one-third the volume of the uncho
Tahini (amount depends on how oily/runny the tahini is. ) About (the sunflower seeds and tahini replace the expensive pine n

Preparation

1
Gather the ingredients and following implements:
2
Food processor
3
Medium bowl
4
Bamboo or wooden paddle, or large wooden spoon, or sturdy tablespoon
5
Prep:
6
Lightly oil the paddle or spoon
7
Rubber scraper for emptying food processor.
8
Stuff food processor lightly with basil.
9
Process basil on HIGHEST setting until well-shredded.
10
Remove basil to bowl, no need to be thorough at removing basil, just get most of it into the bowl.
11
Process the garlic until well shredded and then add sunflower seeds:
12
Measure an equal volume of sunflower seeds to the shredded basil: by VOLUME
13
Process the sunflower seeds on HIGH in food processor, until ground to about the consistency of coarsely-ground pepper.
14
Add tahini gradually, processing with the sunflower seeds until the whole thing is well-mixed. It can be a little 'grainy', doesn't have to be smooth.
15
Taste it now. Should taste garlicky and nutty.
16
Empty and scrape the food processor into the bowl with the basil.
17
Mix thoroughly with the paddle, while adding olive oil in small amounts, mix and add oil until the desired consistency.

Tools

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About

from Wikipedia: "Basil is a tender low-growing herb that is grown as a perennial in warm, tropical climates. Basil is originally native to Iran , India and other tropical regions of Asia , having been cultivated there for more than 5,000 years. There are many varieties of basil . That which is used in Italian food is typically called sweet basil , as opposed to Thai basil , lemon basil holy basil , which are used in Asia. It is prominently featured in Italian cuisine , and also plays a major role in the Southeast Asian cuisines of Thai , Vietnamese and Laotian ."

The pesto you make should be the taste you like, so feel free to add more oil or tahini to make it smoother -- or chop the seeds more coarsely -- more or less garlic -- olive oil flavored with peppers or similar ideas.

DON'T use too much olive oile, especially if you are going to serve the next day (or prep is hours in advance of your date)

If this is a dinner party, after practice (after you make it well yourself), you can have one or two of your guests make this at your direction, and everone will be impressed at your chef skills, no recipe needed for you.

Goes good on toast points, mix with cooked pasta, use on a pizza, don't eat it all with a spoon while standing over the kitchen sink.

With practice, this recipe is start-to-finish in 5 minutes or less, much less time than it takes to type the recipe.

email me drglenn@dr.com if you have allergies or want help modifying the ingredients for flavor or dietary/allergy purposes. I'm @justglenn on twitter.

Yield:

1 servings

Added:

Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 4:18am

Creator:

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