Healthy Recipe #2: From the Garden Basil Pesto

We love to eat Basil Pesto! It is really easy to make and really healthy. Basil contains these important vitamins and minerals: beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin K, potassium, manganese, copper, iron, and magnesium.

We usually keep our recipe pretty simple. Here it is:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 clove garlic
  
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts (we usually don't add these)
  

Directions: Combine basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and nuts in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Blend to a smooth paste. Mix your pesto with noodles for a light and delicious meal!

Serves 4

If you have spinach or any other leafy vegetable, you can also add them to the food processor. When Stinging Nettles are in season, we like to add those. This will increase the nutrients and it is a good way to use up those greens! 

Freezing Pesto
We know a family in the Wells area who grows A LOT of Basil using the Hydroponics method. They recently cut everything down and were generous enough to give us a huge tub (see picture) of the Basil they did not want.
What did we do with all that Basil? We turned it all into pesto and froze it! This is so easy to do and it will last through the Winter months.
*Make a huge batch of pesto (using the recipe above) and scoop into muffin tins or ice trays covered with parchment paper. Once frozen, pop them out and store them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. When ready to eat, put on top of hot cooked pasta, put cover on the pot and let thaw. Mix, add more cheese and pine nuts and EAT!!

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