Broccoli Walnut Pesto

This creamy pesto, lightened up by using a smaller amount of oil, gets it's zing from lemon juice and miso. Pine nuts, move over because walnuts are taking center stage here. And for real, fresh basil in Alaska in January can be hard to come by. Plus, I'm not a bajillionaire. Broccoli it is!

“Oh my god, this is soooo so good!” ”Great! I’m glad you like it. It’s mostly broccoli and walnuts, so I was kind of worried that you wouldn’t.””Geeeeezzze, don’t tell me that!”

— Todd

Who says pesto can't be cheap, lower in calories, and seriously delicious...all while still being vegan? I say that it can and it shall be. 

If you have trouble getting your family members (husband included) to eat broccoli, this is your dish. Straight up. When Todd got home from work, I told him we were having pasta for dinner. This is usually pretty exciting because we don't tend to eat it very often.

Then, he walked into the kitchen and saw a giant bowl of broccoli. His face melted from delight to what can best be described as that of a kid who tore open a present on Christmas morning only to find a crocheted tie from Aunt Gladys. Disappointed and a bit bamboozled. 

He self-proclaims that he's "not-big-on-broccoli". That it's not really his thing. Well, four servings later, one for me and three for Todd...I ended up surrendering a big bowl of the pesto pasta to Todd for his lunch. I brought a PB&J to work. Best wife ever? Dang, now I really want some of that pesto!

Broccoli Walnut Pesto

By Katie Henry - Produce On Parade

This creamy pesto, lightened up by using a smaller amount of oil, gets it's zing from lemon juice and miso. Pine nuts, move over because walnuts are taking center stage here. And for real, fresh basil in Alaska in January can be hard to come by. Plus, I'm not a bajillionaire. Broccoli it is!

Ingredients

• 1 large head of broccoli, florets only
• 16 oz. of dry pasta
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1 small handful of fresh basil (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. walnut oil (olive oil will work, too)
• 1 Tbsp. miso paste
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1. In a large pot of water, boil the broccoli florets for 3 minutes until bright green. Remove with a slotted spoon (keeping the water in the pot) and rinse under cold water; set aside.
2. Add the dry pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package. Strain once cooked but reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta. Return the noodles to pot and set aside.
3. While the pasta cooks, in a food processor combine the walnuts through the vinegar and process until it's reached a fine consistency. There will be a lot of scraping down the sides of the bowl, but it's a small price to pay. Add the florets and process until very smooth and creamy.
4. Stir the pesto sauce and some reserved water into the pot of cooked noodles until it’s reached a desired consistency. Salt to taste.
5. Serve hot with some crushed walnuts on top, if you like!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 00:15
Total time: 00:25
Yield: 6 servings

Listening to Portugal. The Man – Modern Jesus

Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes

First, I cannot start this post without seriously thanking one of our lovely readers, Alex, for leaving me such a truly smile-inducing voice mail! I woke up to it first thing and it just totally made my day! I love getting the voice mails. So, thanks, Alex! Now onto food. Step aside you peasanty twice baked white potatoes! Your snobby, sophisticated and downright sexy cousins are in town! So next time you're thinking of making boring and commonplace twice baked potatoes, let your rad side roam free and make these Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes instead.

These are certainly healthier than regular baked potatoes and I assure you much, much tastier. Class it up, people! You're only cool if you're making twice baked sweet potatoes anyways. Hadn't you heard?

Twice Baked Walnut and Broccoli Sweet Potatoes 

Inspired by Daily Bites

Makes 4

• 4 medium sweet potatoes (equal shape and size)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• sprinkling of kosher salt
• heaping 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped small
• 2 Tbsp. pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), chopped
• 2 cups broccoli (florets only), chopped small
• 1/3 cup vegan cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp. walnut oil (or olive oil)
• 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed (optional)
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Scrub the outside of the sweet potatoes and then dry them. Poke a few slits in each potato with the end of a knife. Rub them with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 1 hour or until tender when poked with a fork. 

Now, go curl up on the couch and read with a cup of hot cider. Or take your dog for a walk and call a friend to catch up. I did all three of these, you can do what you want. When the potatoes are done cooking, taking great care, cut them almost in half. Be sure to leave a small bit intact on both the ends of the potatoes, however. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet while you prepare the stuffing. Just trust me, you're gonna want to let these mofos cool. Leave the oven on.

On a different baking sheet, arrange the chopped walnuts and pepitas and toast for about 7-10 minutes in the 400 F oven or until fragrant. Careful not to let them burn. They're tricky. Once done, remove them from the oven and cool. Still leaving the oven on.

In a large bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients including the walnuts and pepitas and stir well. When the potatoes have cooled sufficiently, very carefully scoop out the insides and place them in the large bowl with the broccoli. You don't have to scrape every last bit, just be sure to get most of it. Careful not to damage the skin. 

Mix all the sweet potato meat with the broccoli mixture and stir until very well combined. 

Now, carefully place all the stuffing back into the potatoes. Once they are all stuffed and bulging *snicker snicker*, feel free to kind of shape them as you please. Top them with a little extra cheese, if you wish and place them back in the oven to bake at 400 F for about 15 minutes. 

Serve hot! These are badass enough to be a main meal if you're a little guy like me, or as a giant side, I suppose. 

We went for an awesome walk today and Todd took some beautiful, Alaskan Fall photos for you all! I'm in the pink, and my BFF in the purple. We have some termination dust! Long live Winter.

What am I listening to? Ghostland Observatory – Sad Sad City

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Frugal Kale Pesto Pasta

Pesto...so expensive, but so darn delicious. I don't know about ya'll but here in Alaska, basil (when you can find it in the store, seriously) is very spendy, and don't even get me started on the pine nuts. Not only does it take two hours to find them, but they also cost about two hours of my pay. It's a little nuts, heh heh a pun! Anywho, Todd and I are leaving for Ohio this week which means I not only have to use up the food in the fridge, but I'm also forbidden from purchasing any food items for fear they will spoil. This is a restriction I have placed upon myself. I cannot be trusted.

Interestingly enough, all that my fridge offered up yesterday was kale...and broccoli. There was a block of tofu, too. That was honestly about it. Good shape for leaving, poor shape for making dinner. So I thought to myself, how about a kale pesto? That sounded good and doable enough, but I sure as hell wasn't buying any pine nuts. I decided to use what nuts I had stashed away. This happened to be pecans, walnuts and brazil nuts. I wasn't exactly sure how the combination would be pan out but I thought, "Meh, I'll try it out." Olive oil, nutritional yeast and garlic are staples that I always on hand so there was no problem there. I even had some really good, cheapo pasta from Costco and a few fresh basil leaves from my two little guys outside. Fancy that!

This pesto is so scrumptious who cares if it's not all proper like. Don't be mistaken though. This ain't no poor man's pesto. Nope, I can safely say I don't ever desire to make a proper pesto again.

A quick note: This pesto sauce recipe makes enough for 34 oz. of dry pasta. That's a lot of pasta, so go ahead and cut the pesto recipe in half, save half for later (which I did) or just use 34 oz. if you've got a boatload of people to feed.

Frugal Kale Pesto Pasta

Inspired by Culinary Adventures In The Kitchen

Makes 4 large servings (pesto sauce recipe makes 2 batches/8 large servings)

• 1 bunch of kale, blanched
• 1 small handful of fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup mixed nuts, chopped and toasted (I used pecans, walnuts and brazil nuts. Feel free to use what you have on hand.)
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
• juice from 1 lemon
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. walnut oil (or additional olive oil)
• 3 generous pinches of pink Himalayan salt
• sprinkling of ground black pepper
• 17 oz. of dry pasta of choice (I used Penne)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Chop up those nuts! Once the temperature has been reached, arrange the nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 10-15 minutes or until fragrant. I beg of you; don't skip the toasting!

Bring a large pot of water to boil. De-stem and wash the kale. Once the water is boiling, submerge the kale in the water for about 3 minutes. Meanwhile get a large bowl and fill it with very cold water. Drain the kale and rinse with cold water, then submerge in bowl of very cold water. Let it sit until ready to use.

Fill the large pot up with water again, this time for the pasta. While the water works to a boil, combine the kale, basil, toasted nuts and garlic in a food processor and process until smooth. Add in the yeast and lemon juice, processing again. Turn off and scrape down the sides. Turn back on and with the processor running, add in the oils. Blend until combined and then add the salt and pepper and process again until combined. Scrape down the sides as needed. Congrats, you just made an amazing and frugal pesto! Times are tough but that doesn't mean we can't eat well.

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Now that the water is boiling, add in the pasta and cook according to the package. This isn't rocket science. Drain the pasta and in a large pot or bowl combine half the recipe of the pesto and all the pasta. Freeze the remaining pesto for later or store in the fridge for a few days until ready to use.

Serve hot with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast. Now that's some good pesto. Enjoy!

Frugal Kale Pesto Pasta

Recipe Type: Entree

Author: Katie - Produce On Parade

Serves: 4-6

Too broke to buy pine nuts and 5 lbs of fresh basil? Never fear, make this Frugal Kale Pesto Pasta instead! I'll never go back!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of kale, blanched
• 1 small handful of fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup mixed nuts, chopped and toasted (I used pecans, walnuts and brazil nuts. Feel free to use what you have on hand.)
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
• juice from 1 lemon
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. walnut oil (or additional olive oil)
• 3 generous pinches of pink Himalayan salt
• sprinkling of ground black pepper
• 17 oz. of dry pasta of choice (I used Penne)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and toast chopped nuts for 10-15 minutes.
2. Blanch kale.
3. Boil water for pasta.
4. While the water works to a boil, combine the kale, basil, toasted nuts and garlic in a food processor and process until smooth. Add in the yeast and lemon juice, processing again.
5. With the processor running, add in the oils and salt and pepper.
6. Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to the package.
7. Drain the pasta and in a large pot or bowl combine half the recipe of the pesto and all the pasta.
8. Freeze the remaining pesto for later or store in the fridge for a few days until ready to use.
9. Serve hot with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast. Now that's some good pesto.

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