Easy Food Processor Pesto

After posting my eleventh recipe that called for pesto to this blog (Pesto Zoodles with Fresh Peas and Bacon), I decided it was high time I actually post a recipe for pesto itself. Watch below or click here to watch the recipe video! Scroll past the video for some images and the full recipe. 

Pesto is a glorious, glorious thing. Ancient Romans were on to something when they started mashing herbs with garlic, cheese and oil. Can you imagine being the chef to first pull out your moral and pestle, fill it with herbs and nuts, only to yield a greenish glop that looks unlike any other sauce you'd seen? And then the first bite! What do you think they thought?

Of course, times have since changed dramatically. Basil wasn't the star of pesto sauce until 1863 (according to Wiki), and wasn't even popular in the US until the 1980s and 1990s. Which, I suppose, explains a lot: as a 90s kid, I was set up to love pesto from the beginning. And now here I am, making pesto in a food processor. (Many will tell you this is not the traditional way, and they are right: in ancient Rome they didn't have food processors... or electricity. This food processor method is the 21st century way. I've made many a batch of pesto in a mortar and pestle, but for a big batch, I always go for the food processor). 

When I have a fresh batch of pesto in the fridge, I fearless add it to every meal. A condiment for potatoes (a sauce for sweet potatoes, or just a dip for some roasted yukon golds). The creamy base for this chicken dish. Shmeared inside of a cheesy omelette. I even put the stuff straight on steamed broccoli, or stir a tablespoon of pesto with a tablespoon of lemon juice to make a vinaigrette. You get the picture. 

Easy Food Processor Pesto

Published July 11, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• Zest from 1/2 a lemon
• 6 cups basil
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Pulse garlic in food processor with salt until minced.
2. Add pine nuts to food processor, and pulse three times. Add parmesan and lemon zest to food processor, and pulse until a meal forms.
3. Add basil and oil to the food processor and pulse until the basil and minced evenly. Scrape the sides with a spatula and pulse again briefly.
4. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge until ready to use. Will last up to 1 week in the fridge.

FOR NUT-FREE: Substitute 1/4 cup sunflower seeds for 1/4 cup pine nuts.

FOR DAIRY-FREE: Substitute 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast for 1/2 cup parmesan.

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

Hello there! If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might be surprised to be hearing from me today. You've probably noticed I post recipes twice a week, and almost never on the weekend. But here I am, posting a recipe on the weekend. 

Most of you are probably reading this long after I hit "publish" of course, and it could be any day of the week. Hello to you as well! 👋

Have a summery salad that needs some lift? This dressing. Found yourself with a burrito bowl in need of a bit more sauce? This dressing. About to eat an avocado with a spoon? You guessed it, a drizzle of this over top will take it over the edge. 

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

Published June 24, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Best friends with avocados, burrito bowls, and roasted corn.

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1/16 teaspoon each salt & pepper 
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend for 1 minute, until emulsified. Pour over a salad or store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week. Enjoy!

Macedonia de Frutas (Chilean-Style Fruit Salad)

¿Quien Quiere Ser Millonario? (the Spanish version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) played on the little TV in the corner of the kitchen. My host mom stood at the counter, preparing ceviche, answering every trivia question before the multiple choice options were even displayed on the screen.  

Manzana. Pera. Naranja. (Apple. Pear. Orange.)

Tienes muchas paciencia, hija, you have so much patience chopping all of those fruits so small. I had just returned from a trip to Los Lagos region in Chile, where I, along with a heard of other students, had picked fresh oranges, visited a Mapuche village, and dined on food fresh from the Fagón. Dessert? The best damn fruit salad I had ever had.   

Fruit salad. Such a blah dish. It's the sort of dish your grandma served as a "healthy dessert" when you really just wanted a cookie (mine did at least). But this fruit salad. This fruit salad! You’d never see fruit salad the same way again. Served in a crystal goblet, it looked like something well beyond the fruit salad I knew. A far cry from the plastic container of pineapple, under ripe melon, and grapes you’d buy at an American grocery store. In Chile, fruit salad like this is called Macedonia De Fruta. 

The fruit was chopped so small, you could hardly tell what each bite contained. A hint of lemon. A bouquet of nature’s sweets. A medley of sorts. It must’ve had some effect on me, as the day I returned to my host families home, I volunteered to make the fruit salad for the asado (barbecue) happening that afternoon. I knew exactly what I was going to do.  

Slicing and dicing didn’t feel like patience. My mind was far away, the TV just a sound in the background. Chopping each piece of fruit was meditation. I could’ve zoned out for hours. 

Macedonia de Frutas (Chilean-Style Fruit Salad)

Published June 20, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

This fruit salad is chopped fine so you get a little bit of everything in each bite.

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 nectarine 
• 1 banana
• 1 apple
• 1 pear 
• 2 kiwi
• 1 yellow mango 
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• Juice of 1/2 an orange 
• Sprig of mint 

Directions:

1. Chop fruit, removing pits and seeds as you go (remove peels from banana, mango, and kiwi), into 1/2 inch cubes. Place in bowl.
2. Sprinkle with lemon zest and squeeze orange juice over fruit. Toss to combine, and top with a spring of mint. Serve immediately or allow flavors to marinate together for 30 minutes, covered, in the fridge to prevent oxidization.