Pesto recipe with cashews

🌿 Pesto time!

I’ve just harvested the last of my Basil growing in my little herb garden. I’ve already cut it and made pesto before and it just kept growing!!

I want to share with you a special pesto recipe I always use. The cashews give it a creamy and different texture that is utterly delish! I doubled this recipe today due to the huge haul of Basil.

🥜 Why cashews?

Traditional Genovese pesto uses pine nuts, which are delicious but can be really expensive. Cashews are softer and naturally creamy, so they make the pesto rich and smooth, plus they bring protein, magnesium, zinc and good fats to the party.

🌱 Here is the recipe (a normal batch)

– 1 cup of cashew nuts
– 3 cups of washed basil leaves
– 1 cup of olive oil
– 1 teaspoon of Celtic salt
– Juice of a lemon
– 1 cup of grated Parmesan
– 3 cloves of garlic
– 4 drops of dōTERRA Lemon oil

👩‍🍳 How to make it, step by step

1. Wash the basil and dry it really well. Wet leaves make a watery pesto that goes dark faster.
2. Pop the cashews and garlic into your Thermomix or food processor first and give them a quick blitz.
3. Add the basil, Parmesan, salt, lemon juice and Lemon oil.
4. With the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil.
5. Whizz until everything is combined and you’ve got a lovely creamy texture. Scrape down the sides as you go.
6. Taste and add a little more salt or lemon if you like.

🍝 Ways to use it

– Stirred through hot pasta with a splash of the pasta water
– Spread on toast or sandwiches, or our cottage cheese flatbread!
– Swirled through soup or roasted veggies
– Dolloped on eggs, fish or chicken
– Thinned with extra olive oil as a salad dressing

💡 Our tips

– Keep it in a jar in the fridge with a thin layer of olive oil over the top. This stops it going dark, and it’ll keep for about a week.
– It also freezes really well! Spoon it into ice cube trays and you’ve got little pesto bombs ready for any meal.
– Want it vegan? Swap the Parmesan for 2 to 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast.

Buon appetito! 🇮🇹