I hope your week is off to a great start.

Today I want to share with you my latest trick for basil pesto, homemade but with that gourmet twist, really thick with only plant based ingredients. As usual, I made a lot because I like to have it ready to use in many of my dishes, mainly pasta and sandwiches, but also, very specially, baked sweet potatoes. Oh, you must try them if you haven't.

I've used walnuts most of the time, to give pesto more body and consistency. Once I tried with soaked almonds or soaked cashew nuts, and it was pretty decent every time. But this time I didn't soak the cashew nuts, and it made all the difference. When stored in the refrigerator, the nuts soak further in the olive oil and the pesto becomes a wonderful magic foodie potion.

INGREDIENTS

This is what I used this time for 600 ml:

• 250 gr basil leaves, clean

• 500 ml olive oil

• 80 gr roasted cashew nuts (without soaking)

• teaspoon salt

• sterilized jar with cap

• 50 ml extra olive oil t cover the pesto before storing

THE PROCESS

Find some fresh basil. I bought about 550 gr; I plucked all the leaves, about 250 gr.

For amazing green that will stay, blanch the basil leaves by leaving them for a few seconds in boiling water.

Remove the excess water using your favorite method. I squeezed them hard, and then I let them dry for some minutes in front of the fan.

Once the leaves are ready to use, peel the garlic cloves.

It's time now to get all the ingredients except the cashew nuts in the blender and let it do its job. When I use porcelain garlic, I like to cut the cloves lenghtwise so the blender blades won't miss them.

I like to use plenty, but I don't get it all at once into the blender, just in case.

The truth is that you could use the pesto just like it is at this point. Thickenning it is a matter of taste if you ask me. In fact, I prepare it like this, without the garlic, to freeze it for months; then I add the crushed nuts (optional), minced garlic and extra olive oil at the moment of serving it. It's such a useful hack because the tedious part of pesto is dealing with the leaves.

...But life is better when you have cashew nuts, so._

Add the roasted cashew nuts, and go from sauce to paste.

Delicious, super green, creamy, spreadable on toast, 100% to stick on your pasta, 200% to make many of your favorite meals better.

After it's done, you can store it in sterilized jars and put some more olive oil on top. If you treat it carefully, it can be good and super green for several weeks in your fridge. I've had it up to 2 months without having to freeze it.

As usual, I hope you found this post useful 😋

Do you like to make your own basil pesto?

How do you like it?

Bon appetit!❤️