Homemade Basil Pesto
This amazing homemade basil pesto is a great way to use up all your fresh basil from the garden!
Servings: 6 Meals
Ingredients
- 4 cups of fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup of pine nuts
- 1 cup avocado oil
- 2 tbsp of minced garlic.
- 1 cup of fresh shredded parmesan cheese.
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Wash up your basil
- Pick all the leaves off of the stems and set aside.
- Measure out 4 cups of packed basil leaves. The more the better!
- Take 1 cup of pine nuts and set them aside. (Option here to roast them on the skillet first. I have made them both ways and think either way is amazing!).
- Set aside 1 cup of parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of avocado oil, and 2 tbsp of garlic
- Place all the basil and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until it is shredded well. Be careful to not get it too mushy. Add the cheese and garlic to the mixture and pulse until it is well combined.
- Slowly pour in the 1 cup of oil while the food processor is running. It will start to combine and look like pesto!
- Add the salt and do a quick pulse to combine. Add more to taste.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Subsituation Notes:
Oil: I make mine with avocado oil because that is what we buy in bulk at Costco for my homemade mayo's and aolis. Olive oil is traditional with pesto, however, like me, you can use whatever oil you have on hand. For the healthies oils I would stick with your olive, grapseed, or avocado oils. Coconut oil harden's very easily, and wouldn't give your pesto a good conistancy.
Nuts: My husband has made pesto with walnuts before. I have heard you can use nuts like walnuts, almound or cashews (I bet cashews would make it really creamy), bu tI have only ever used pine nuts.
Cheese: I try to stay dairy free, yet there are some times it's just better for me to have the daiy. This is one of thsoe recipes. However, I recently discovered a cheese from sheep milk called Manchego Cheese which I am able to tolerate much more. You can subsitute the parmesan for Manchego cheese, if you need somehting a little more tolerable. It has a similar texture to parmesan.