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I was schooled one day when I read about how Healthy Spinach and Kale Pesto can be.
Healthy Spinach and Kale Pesto
The first time that I enjoyed pesto was in an Italian restaurant.
The restaurant served the pesto with thinly sliced bread as an appetizer while we waited for our meal.
We happily dipped our bread into the pesto sauce and quickly asked for more.
People ask me if Pesto is a sauce or a dip.
I answer them with a basic ‘yes’. This is because pesto tastes amazing as a sauce with your favorite pasta. However, pesto is just as amazing as a dip for bread or crackers.
This vegetarian favorite is based upon a favorite Italian sauce that has been around for many generations.
The original and traditional pesto was indeed a sauce. This pesto consisted of ingredients that are specific to Italy (Genoa).
Our shopping list for pesto has evolved over the years.
If you were to make a more traditional pesto, you would have to buy more specific ingredients.
You would need garlic, pine nuts, olive oil,fresh basil and parmigiana cheese. You would most likely put this to use as a sauce with your favorite pasta.
Today, we can get creative with the ingredients that we put into our pesto.
I have added spinach and kale to this recipe because I wanted something different. Spinach and kale are among the ‘healthy superfoods’ that we are told to include more of in our diets.
While traditional pesto was made with a mortar and pestle, today we have other options.
You could easily use a food processor to make this. I like to use my Vitamix blender too. Anyone can find a Vitamix blender easily on Amazon. We find a lot of our favorite items there as well.
The recipe for Healthy Spinach and Kale Pesto
We add Kale because it is considered to be a healthy vegetable.
Fresh kale is loaded with Vitamins C and A. Kale is also a good source of potassium.
We add Spinach because it is another healthy vegetable.
Spinach is also a good source of Vitamin A. Luckily, fresh spinach is easy to find as well.
An easy to make recipe for Pesto that features spinach and kale.
Ingredients
- Kale, cleaned- 2 cups (packed well)
- Spinach- 2 cups (packed well)
- Salt-1 teaspoon
- Nuts (pine, sunflower,pistachios etc)-1/4 cup
- Garlic- 2 cloves
- Parmesan Cheese-1 cup grated
- Olive Oil-3/4 Cup
Instructions
- Combine together the kale, spinach,nuts,salt, cheese, and nuts in a food processor (or Vitamix blender) and process until all is well chopped..
- Drizzle in the olive oil slowly and continue to mix. If not serving immediately, reduce the oil to 1/2 cup and add the remaining oil when serving this.
- Pesto can be frozen however, do so without adding the the remaining oil when serving.
Anyone can easily freeze their pesto away for later use.
To freeze pesto you first need to omit a third of the oil that is specified in the recipe. Add this oil back into the pesto just before serving it.
You can serve this pesto as a sauce for your favorite pasta.
However, if you eat this as a dip for bread or crackers, you will be equally pleased with it. We eat this pesto with just about anything we feel like at the moment.
Pesto is not just for dipping or using as a sauce.
I will be featuring recipes in the near future that incorporate pesto. Pesto adds a lot of taste and color to these recipes.
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I am not a big fan of pesto but this does look good
Love this little healthier twits