Kale Walnut Pesto

Weather has been fantastic in New York the last week or so, beautiful, warm, sunny!  Spending long days outdoors have become a regular thing again. But attempting not to spend money outdoors on (fabulous) food when I’ve got a fridge full of produce has proven difficult when thinking of heating up my little kitchen does not sound appealing.  The solution: pesto! OK, so I’ve still got to turn on the stove for the accompanying pasta for said pesto, but that’s a small price to pay for the minimal sweat I break for this meal.

Oh, and did I mention this is a twofer? I created this pesto as a result of trying not to be wasteful, using the remnants of my favorite green juice as the base of the pesto. The result is an non-traditional yet still delicious pesto, using walnuts instead of pine nuts (although I do love those pricey little suckers), and nutritional yeast in place of the usual parmiggiano-reggiano cheese.

To start, let’s take a look at the ingredients I juiced for the yummy green juice:

5-7 leaves/stalks of lacinto kale 

2 fuji apples

1 inch of ginger root

2 celery stalks (not pictured)

Using my roommate’s juicer, it was easy to juice these fruits and veggies to create a yummy green drink! But if you don’t have a juicer handy, whizzing these ingredients up in a blender and making a smoothie also comes out very well. Just add 1 cup of water before blending all ingredients together. But clearly, if you make a smoothie, then (in my best Seinfeld Soup Nazi voice): no pesto for you! 🙂

Now on to the pesto! Super simple stuff here: take juice pulp (roughly about 2-3 cups of pulp) and blend together with the rest of the ingredients!

Here’s what you’ll need:

2-3 cups Kale Apple Juice pulp

1/4 cup of raw walnuts

2 garlic cloves

1/4 olive oil

1 – 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast*

lemon juice (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until well combined and creamy. The lemon juice isn’t necessary but is nice to wake up all the flavors and also hide the bitterness the greens may have, it all depends on your palate.  I like to serve it mixed with pasta, makes a super simple creamy pesto pasta. And top the pasta with some heirloom cherry tomatoes. It’ll work with whatever pasta you prefer: regular semolina pasta, a whole wheat pasta, or any variety of gluten-free pasta. In a pasta dish for two, you only need to use about 2-3 tbsp of pesto to coat, but not overwhelm, the pasta. You can also find all kinds of other used for this awesome spread: on a sandwich or combined as an extra flavor on top a seitan steak, maybe? This makes about 8 ounces of pesto, so there’s enough for multiple use. And easily stores in the fridge for a couple of days.

*If you’re not familiar with nutritional yeast, the taste takes some getting use to, so start off using a smaller amount at a time. I go for a full 2 tbsp, but I built up to that as well when first using it in recipes.

What are some of your go to warm weather recipes? Fill me in! I’m always up for new food ideas/recipes. And, let me know what other ways you use pesto sauces!