Experience Nutrition

Tag: vegan pesto

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Daily Healthy Recipes by Melanie Albert: Fresh Green Pistachio Pesto

    by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    As some of you are aware I’ve been studying in a Cooking Course with Plantlab Culinary and am currently recipe testing for the Final Project. The Second Course for my Project is Sprouted Spelt Flatbread. One of the components of the flatbread is a fresh green pesto to add color, texture, and a sharp flavor to the flatbread.

    I invite you to use the Pistachio Pesto recipe as guide to intutively create your own pesto, with different nuts, such as walnuts or pecans, and different fresh herbs. Enjoy the pesto with flatbread, on a sweet potato, or even with a salad.

    Green Pistachio Pesto

    Ingredients

    • 2/3 cup pistachios, rough chopped
    • 1/2 cup fresh parsley, rough chopped
    • 1/2 cup spinach, roughly chopped
    • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1/6 cup lemon juice
    • 1 garlic clove, minced
    • 1 tsp lemon zest

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    Simple Steps

    Step 1: Gather your mise en place.

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    Step 2: Spin parsley and spinach in salad spinner to dry the leaves.

    Step 3: Make your dressing with the olive oil, lemon, sea salt, and garlic. Start with 1 part acid (lemon), with 2 parts (olive oil), taste and balance with more oil or lemon. Add sea salt and minced garlic.

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    Step 4: Add the pistachios, parsley, spinach, and lemon zest to the dressing and toss.

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    Step 5: If you’d like the pesto more fine, pulse in a food processor for a minute or two.

    Tonight I enjoyed the pesto with an Arugula Tomato Avocado Salad, with local Arizona farmer’s organic arugula, pea shoots, and mini-tomatoes. Added a few of my favorites olives, capers, and goat cheese.

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    Would love to see your pesto creations on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

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  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Intuitive Cooking: Spiral Veggie Saute with Vegan Cashew Basil Pesto

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    The last few days I have been honored to shoot a series of videos with Tom Shanahan of Spiritual Adrenaline. We prepared 13 cooking videos, so I’m the lucky one with lots of incredible whole food delicious left-overs. One of cooking videos featured Raw Spiral Veggies with Cashew Basil Pesto. For that dish, I spiralized organic zucchini, sweet potato, butternut squash, and golden beets, and created a vegan, dairy-free pesto with raw cashews, basil, lemon, olive oil, and sea salt.

    Today, with the left-over already spiralized veggies and the cashew basil pesto, and the addition of a beautiful organic heirloom tomato, I created one of my very favorite dishes ever. (I’m so glad I can cook another batch tomorrow!)

    Enjoy a few of the photos and have fun creating your own veggie saute with left-overs!

    • Simple Ingredients: Spiralized raw veggies, cashew basil pesto, heirloom tomato, organic extra virgin olive oil, and garlic and sea salt (not in photo)
    •  Beautiful heirloom tomato: Lightly saute in organic extra virgin olive oil, with fresh garlic, and sea salt.
    • Saute: Add the spiralized veggies to the saute pan and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
    • Plate and enjoy!

    EXCERPT: A New View of Healthy Eating: Spiral Veggies with Nut-Based Creamy Dressing

    Learn how to spiral colorful veggies and create a simple dressing with raw cashews and basil.

    Basic Salad Dressing: Raw Cashews & Basil Pesto

    A vegan, dairy-free, creamy dressing is the base for this colorful raw spiral veggie salad. With fresh basil and lots of garlic, this refreshing dressing is a perfect alternative to a cheese-based pesto.

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • ½ cup raw cashews, soaked 3-4 hours in water
    • ½ cup fresh basil leaves
    • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
    • 2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
    • 1 tsp sea salt
    • ¼ cup organic extra virgin olive oil

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Place all ingredients except organic extra virgin olive oil into food processor.
    • Add olive oil little by little until smooth.
    • Taste and add extra garlic, lemon juice, or basil leaves to create a taste that’s right for you.

    For this recipe and  more, my book, A New View of Healthy Eating is available now, and I can ship to you. (Or come to one of my events: Oct 9, 11am-1pm, The Farm at South Mountain; Oct 15, 9-11am)

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