Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hey guys! This is Heather from HealthyVeganRecipes.net. So today we are going to make a pesto recipe
that comes from Amy over at the HealthyApple.com. I‘ve been checking her recipes for a long
time now and I though it’s about time I shared one with you from her site.
She has some awesome gluten free recipes some include some dairy or eggs but there is a
replace so you guys totally have to check her site out. There’s a recipe she posted
a couple of days ago for black bean burritos with chipotle sauce and sounds super super
good and I really want to try it but today were gonna make her pesto which also sounds
fantastic.
It’s a sunflower seed pesto, she said that it is unlike any other pesto and it’s true
because its sunflower seed base instead of pine nuts and it doesn’t even have any basil
in it. It’s with spinach which is one of my favorites and I’m gonna actually mix
part spinach and part chard because I don’t have a full thing of spinach to do.
Alright, so let’s get started. We are going to start with – I, ok! I started with the
seeds which I dry toasted in a pan and the reason I did that is to bring the flavours
out. You can buy roasted sunflower seeds but they often are roasted with oil and where
done commercially they usually use canola or some other really heavily processed oil.
So, I like to do them myself, I just buy them raw sunflower seeds and toast them in a pan
and put them up to medium high and keep them moving so they don’t burn.
And there are sunflower seeds as well as sesame seeds in this recipe which I will post over
on my site, HealthyVeganRecipes.net if you want the direction and exact measurements.
I will also post a link to the recipe over at Amy’s site. She got some awesome pictures
to take you through the recipes.
Ok, so I got those seeds toasted and then I did something a little bit different with
the garlic and onions. I haven’t tried this before, I was experimenting and it work out
pretty well so I’m gonna show you that.
Ok, so I started by dry toasting the seeds in a pan and then what I did is transfer the
seeds through the food processor and added the onion and garlic to the pan with just
the oils from the nuts and seeds and sauté them like that.
And then I poured in some water right in the end just to steam them so that I don’t have
to sauté them in oil but I was still concentrating the flavor of these guys and they look pretty
nicely caramelize so I think that work pretty well.
You can tell me if I’m crazy or not then what you want to do is just wilt your spinach
lightly so I’m going to put the spinach in the pan with a little bit of water just
so that it’s just wilted. How many times you can use just in a sentence?
So if you’re wondering what just wilted looks like, this is it. You don’t want them
too wilted and you could do them fresh and one interesting with spinach. It is full of
nutrients. Chard as well, like I said I’m using half of half.
But they’re nutrients can be bound up by oxalic acid so if you cook them a little bit,
it breaks down that oxalic acids and makes the nutrients more absorbable by your body
and that’s the main thing right because you can have a ton of nutrients in what you
eat but if your body is not using it, there’s no point.
You want to make it sure that the nutrients is absorbable as possible. So throw that into
the food processor with your seeds, onions, and garlic that you got there and then we’ll
season it.
Alright, the key to making a really awesome vegan pesto with no cheese is to use some
nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is this yellow flaky stuff. It is not the same as
the kind of yeast that you bake with that makes bread rice.
I get lot of people asking me about this ingredient. It taste a little bit cheesy, it doesn’t
taste like cheese. So for those of you who are super duper cheese fanatic. It’s not
going exactly replace cheese but it has a cheesy flavor. Put it in this pesto and it
will taste delicious. You won’t need any cheese.
And then I’m also adding some salt in here, some sea salt and I’m actually using some
herbamere. My favorite seasoning that is sea salt marinated with dried herbs, dried vegetables
and some kelp so that it all comes together to a really delicious seasoning that reduces
the amount of salt that you are using while increasing the nutrients because of the herbs,
and the veggies and the kelp in there.
Let me see, that is all the ingredients. I’m going to put these in the food processor and
give it a pulse. So you want to puree it until it’s fairly nice and smooth and then you
can give it a taste to make sure you don’t need any more seasoning.
That is so good and I didn’t use any olive oil although it is in the ingredient for you
to sauté the onion and the garlic with and it will also give more fat to the recipe.
I have been cooking without oil for a little while so I just decided to try it without
and see how it is and it is so delicious.
If you do want to use olive oil just sauté your onion and garlic with that instead of
my crazy method that I showed you earlier. And that will just concentrate the flavor
of the onion and the garlic a little bit more than I did. But like I said, it’s super
delicious even without.
Some ideas that Amy suggest in serving this pesto is to spread them on some crackers or
some toast or serve it with fresh raw vegetables which is something that Phil’s sister and
I like to do. She slices the zucchini really thin and then put some pesto and a half of
a cherry tomato on top, it’s so delicious.
Some other thoughts that Amy have were to put it on top of a dish of some grain or some
beans or tofu or whatever. It’s up to you, make some really nice meal and add some delicious
flavor.
Another thing that Phil’s mom love to do is making a pizza with some pesto as a base
and then some zucchini, some mushrooms, some spinach, whatever kind of vegetables you have
to put it on top. Really really delicious pizza and you can just use a whole wheat pita
as a pizza crust.
So I hope you guys give Amy’s pesto a try, it is really really delicious. I promise!
You can find more of her recipes over at the HealthyApple.com and you can of course find
the recipe and directions for this one at HealthyVeganRecipes.net and that’s it for
me for now. I’m gonna get go eat some pesto, see you guys later.