Kale Walnut Basil Pesto

Use kale (or other leafy green you successfully grew indoors!) and basil to make a flavorful pesto that can be used in grain bowls, on whole-grain crackers, as a legume pasta sauce, or on top of avocado toast. It’s packed with omega-3s, folate, carotenoids, magnesium, and much, much more.

 Kale Walnut Basil Pesto

Ingredients

 2 cups organic kale (destemmed)

 ⅔ cup walnuts (raw)

 1 cup basil (packed)

 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

 2 cloves garlic

 ½ cup avocado (or 1 whole medium avocado)

 1 large lemon (juiced)

 ¼ cup water

 ¼ tsp salt (optional)

 ¼ tsp pepper (optional)

 ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

1

Add kale, walnuts, basil, nutritional yeast, and garlic to a food processor. Blend until smooth.

2

Add the avocado, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, if using.

3

Blend again until smooth. Add more water, if needed, one tablespoon at a time until you achieve the desired consistency.

4

Taste for additional ingredients of your choice (lemon, nutritional yeast, salt, or basil).

Chef's Notes

Substitutions
In place of fresh garlic use ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.

In place of kale use organic spinach or another leafy green of choice.

In place of nutritional yeast, use 1 tablespoon of mellow organic yellow chickpea miso.

Nut-free
In place of walnuts use sunflower seeds or hemp seeds.

How to use the spread<
Make extra to use it as a pasta sauce. You might need to add water or vegetable broth to thin it out some for this.

Mix in with spaghetti squash and other vegetables.

Spread it on sweet potato toast.

Spread it on whole-grain bread with fresh baked garlic.

Use it as a grain bowl topping.

Use it as a vegetable dip.

Spread it on roasted vegetables.

Use it as a topping for grilled tofu or tempeh.

https://foodrevolution.org/recipes/kale-walnut-basil-pesto/