When friends hand you basil…

A couple of weeks ago a friend brought me this gorgeous bounty from her own garden:

I promptly ate all the arugula before anyone else could get their hands on it. Then I turned to the lemons.  Squoze them into my hot water all weekend long and had a happy liver and pretty skin.  Next I roasted a whole mess of veggies topped with that rosemary, yum.  I put the leftover rosemary into every shampoo bottle in my house because rosemary repels lice.

Not that I would know anything about lice….nothing at all…

Lastly I turned my attention to that beautiful basil.  This is THE BEST PESTO the world has ever known and of course, no cheese, no cholesterol, no saturated fat, and no animals harmed.  In fact, I almost titled this post Pesto No Breasto but was afraid no one would click on it.  Or no one I would want to click on it.

This recipe does include a small amount of Nutritional Yeast, which I have yet to find here in Israel.  I am sorry for that, I try not to post things that have non-available ingredients and my supply of Nooch as it is called in Veg Circles, is running dangerously low.  I hope to soon be able to find it here.  In the meantime, you can try the recipe without it.  And please tell me if you have already found it here.

The Best Pesto in the World (or Pesto No Breasto)

(original recipe based on this one from ohsheglows.com HERE)

1/2 cup sesame seeds

2 T Nutritional yeast

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup olive oil

1 bunch fresh basil

4 big handfuls fresh spinach

2 cloves of garlic

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp salt

In a skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirring and watching the entire time.  They burn fast, so just toast them for a few minutes until they are just starting to turn golden and dump them out of then pan and into your food processor immediately.  (They will keep cooking if you leave them in the pan and burned sesame seeds smell bad, trust me).  Add the Nutritional yeast and process until crumbly.  Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.  Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.  I like a thick pesto that I can spread on things, if you want a thinner one to toss on pasta, you can thin it down with more olive oil or with some non-dairy milk if you want it lower fat.

The only problem with this pesto is that it is a little hard to stop eating.  I had it on homemade whole wheat foccacia (Recipe HERE):

I ate it on top of bread with sun-dried tomatoes…

Then I stuffed some mushrooms with it…

And now, with little bits of basil still stuck between my teeth, I think I’ll drink some hot lemon water and reflect on what wonderful friends I have.

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