Pesto – with benefits!

Making your own pesto is really easy but also means you get to control the quality of the ingredients. I like to use extra-virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and greens, increased amounts of Parmesan, a higher ratio of nuts and seeds and also choosing the ingredients for the health properties. The biggest cost when making pesto is the extra-virgin olive oil and the Parmesan cheese. But you can make a larger jar than you would buy in the supermarket and it also freezes well. Pumpkin seeds contain magnesium, zinc, iron, manganese and copper. Pistachio nuts were a rich source of the vitamins, including vitamin B6 but also 2 special antioxidants called Zeazanthin which is important for eye health, as well as lutein. These are both what we call carotenoids which are beneficial plant compounds.

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4g Protein

1g Fibre

5.5 Plant Points

Ingredients

80g Parmesan cheese or vegetarian hard cheese
2 cloves of garlic
80g greens, I used a mix of basil, rocket (arugula) and spinach
80 g pistachio and pumpkin seeds combined
160 g /ml extra virgin olive oil.
1 teaspoon of salt (I used Maldon)

Method

1. Roast the pumpkin and pistachio nuts. I used an air fryer at 180° C for 4 minutes. Alternatively, roast in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow them to completely cool before making the pesto otherwise you will melt the cheese and it will taste terrible!

2. Grate the Parmesan cheese by hand, or if your food processor is strong enough, blitz it in small pieces to form a powder.

3. Add all the other ingredients and process until smooth, but slightly chunky.

4. Transfer to a glass jar (try and choose the right size jar)

5. Keep in the fridge. Add a layer of olive oil to the top, to prevent oxidation or discolouring.

This freezes well, so you can split it between two glass jars. As long as you only fill it to 3/4 full, to allow for expansion, you can freeze it in the jar.

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