Monday, May 30, 2011

Veggie Patch Pesto

Welcome to Autumn!
Well it has been a while since I have posted, mainly because the garden has not provided much eating as we have been in getting it ready for the autumn planting.
We are running about a month behind of schedule, but we do have our snow peas just starting to fruit and some beetroot growing well.
We harvested kilos of pumpkin, so they have kept us in soups and risottos for a while and we harvested lots of okra, which was a first for us this year, but we got them too late and some of them were a bit woody! We did enjoy a few coated in besan flour and deep fried as a nice nibble before a delicious Indian curry!
We have an abundance of rocket at the moment, so last night I thought I would make a pesto to go with some gluten free spaghetti as an easy and quick meal!
I always have a spare bag of nuts in the cupboard, in this case they were walnuts, so that is what I used.
We also still have some basil hanging in there, so I picked a good handful of leaves to toss in as well.
A squeeze of lemon juice, the bag of nuts and a very, very generous handful of rocket and basil leaves was blitzed very well with enough oil to loosen it, I also added a few shavings of Parmesan cheese and sprinkle of salt and pepper.
I thought it wasn't nutrient dense enough, so I added a few florets of broccoli and cauliflower and blitzed them too with the juice of one lemon! I thought this would also be a great way to get kids eating extra veggies without knowing!
Tossed through hot pasta and topped with some extra Parmesan cheese, the pesto was really delicious with a glass of great preservative free red!
Perfect next to the roaring log fire...I do love Autumn!