Monday, June 23, 2008

Oil-free Pesto

I modified this from Isa Chandra Moskowitz' Vegan With a Vengeance cookbook. The traditional pesto recipes use basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil and lemon. The vegan recipes substitute nutritional yeast for the parmesan cheese. I've tried this and don't like the combination of pine nuts and nutritional yeast. Isa substitutes walnuts for the pine nuts and I think this works better. She also puts in a lot of olive oil and salt which I leave out. and I put in less nutritional yeast. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup walnuts
3 cups packed basil leaves
3 cloves garlic
1-2 Tbsp water
1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Combine the walnuts, basil and garlic in a food processor. Add in the water and lemon. Add in the nutritional yeast. Blend until it's grainy, but not a puree.

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