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!

Fiesta Fajitas

Who wouldn’t love a good celebration with festive foods to accompany all the fun?!

That’s one of the reasons New Yorkers flock towards holidays like Cinco de Mayo. It is one of those holidays that people of all walks of life find fun here. It’s an exciting unofficial start of warm weather dining outdoors with tasty foods and boozy drinks that scream summer before summer begins. So how can our vegan buddies join in on the fun? Easy! Portobello mushroom Fiesta Fajitas! Mushrooms are one of those versatile foods that are meaty in texture and take on the seasonings you toss at ‘em. Perfect for some fun Mexican flare.

I tested these out on my roommate and she loved them.  She’s not vegan and loved the taste and texture, pointing out that she wouldn’t even think twice about any meat missing in this dish. I added the no-beef broth to give the essence of that flavor meat eaters love to say they’d miss about steak so much so they would never be vegan. The base of this recipe comes from Happy Herbivore’s fabulous portabello steaks. Specifically her combination of the broth with balsamic vinegar gives the mushrooms that full bodied beefy flavor.  Let’s get started!

What you will need:

2 portabello mushroom caps, sliced

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 cup no-beef broth*

1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1-2 tbsp. taco seasoning**

¼ cup cilantro

2-4 leaves of lacinto kale

Flour tortillas

Let’s get cooking:

First, add some olive oil (about 1-2tbsp) to a pan set to medium heat, toss in the onions and peppers, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and saute for about 5 minutes until onions are translucent.

Toss in garlic and cook another minute or two before adding in about a ¼ cup of the no-beef broth*, making sure to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan (the added flavor for our beefy sauce).

Mix into the pan the tbsp. of balsamic vinegar and your taco seasoning**. At this point if the no-beef broth has cooked down too much, add another ¼ cup.

Add in the sliced portabella mushrooms, and nestle them into the saucy pan, cover and cook for about 5 minutes for the sauce to get soaked up. Give your portabellas a toss, cover pan and cook for another 5 minutes on the other side, adding more broth if necessary. Portabellas are done when they’ve softened and taken on the deep color of the broth, and the flavors of the balsamic and taco seasoning… YUM!

While the mushrooms are cooking, you can remove the rib from the kale. (That’s the stalky tough stem of the kale.) I used kale with these fajitas for their hearty texture, but any preferred green would work if you’re not a fan of kale.

Next, heat a dry pan to warm your tortillas, a few seconds per side. Watch not to dry them out and make them crisp!

Once the mushrooms are done, you’re ready to plate them. Layer the tortilla with the kale, then the mushroom, onion, pepper combination, top with chopped cilantro and enjoy!

*No-beef broth can be purchased boxed like your usual vegetable or no-chicken based broths, or you can also use Edward & Sons brand no-beef bouillon cubes (which can be mixed with boiling water, and used just like the boxed broth). I like keeping a few of the bouillon cubes handy (saves space in my little Manhattan kitchen cabinets!)

**For the taco seasoning, I mixed my own spices together using the measurements off this recipe from allrecipes.com, altering slightly with a bit more garlic and minus onion powder (since I was out of it). It was the first time I had mixed my own spices, and I really liked this recipe I found. But you are welcome to use whatever taco seasoning you’d prefer!

Let me know what you think would be another awesome addition to your vegan Cinco festivities!