Skip to main content

Recipe: Pesto with homegrown basil

It is an absolute delight to harvest from our own garden, irrespective of how small the garden is and how less the produce is. I harvested some basil from my balcony garden last week and made some delicious pesto out of it. You can check out this video, if you wish to see the garden space in my apartment. 


Basil, as many of you know is a flavoursome herb primarily used in cooking. When I was in India, I once had pesto pasta in an Italian restaurant and that is my first encounter with this herb. But after few years, I tasted its fresh leaves as a salad topping when I was Germany and fell in love with it. It has a very refreshing taste. Its flavour and taste slightly resemble our Indian Tulasi, so most of us mistake Basil for Tulasi (Holy Basil). They both along with other herbs like mint, parsley, sage, oregano, chia, rosemary, thyme etc. belong to a flowering plant family known as Lamiaceae, commonly called Mint Family. These plants are aromatic and are used in cooking and making balms and medicines.

While Basil is used in culinary preparations, Tulasi finds its place in medicinal preparations. Basil leaf's texture is soft and thin, while Tulasi is coarse and thick. Basil has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties making it aid in gut health, skin health, diabetes management, apart from detoxifying the body. Basil can be eaten raw as topping on salads, pizza and sandwich or can be brewed into a herbal tea or can be pounded into pesto or can be included in a variety of dishes. Irrespective of how it is used, basil imparts a wonderful flavour and elevates the taste of the dish.

Pesto is nothing but a sauce that originated from Italy. In Indian terms, we could call it as a chutney. Herbs like basil, mint, parsley, oregano, chives or a combination of any two or more of these or all combined together can be used to make pesto. Traditionally, Italians made pesto by pounding the herb with a mortar and pestel along with garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil and served it with pasta. Pesto can also be used as a salad dressing, spread on bread, sauce in making pizza and lasagna, veggie dip etc.

Generally pine nuts are expensive and aren't readily found in the aisles of all the shops, so you can substitute it with walnuts or almonds. Parmesan cheese is preferred for making pesto, due to its unique taste and texture. I believe in cooking with easily available ingredients. So I won't suggest you run to the nearby super market to buy parmesan. I am sure, most of us would stock up on cheddar in our refrigerators. So if you don't have parmesan handy, try using cheddar. I made basil pesto with cheddar last time and it tasted delicious too; nevertheless parmesan indisputably imparts the authentic taste and texture in a pesto recipe. With cheddar, the pesto turned out to be creamy. 

Coming to its preparation, pesto doesn't involve any chopping or cooking. Doesn't it sound inviting? Yes, all that you do is simply grind all the ingredients together, making it an easy-peasy recipe, which needs hardly 10 minutes of our time. If you have excess basil, you can make a big batch of pesto and store it in the refrigerator for 3-5 days or may freeze it as well to stay a bit longer. However, we have to carefully store pesto, otherwise it might lose its bright green colour. I have shared a tip towards the end of the post, to tackle this discolouration.  

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to get notified about my latest articles!!

By now, you know what ingredients goes into this recipe and how to prepare it, but as a customary practice of a recipe post, let me share the ingredients and procedure below.

Ingredients:

  • Basil leaves - 2 handfuls
  • Walnuts - 1/3 cup
  • Parmesan cheese (grated) - 1/3 cup
  • Garlic - 2 cloves
  • Olive oil (extra virgin) - 1/4 cup
  • Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
  • Lime juice - 1 tbps
  • Salt - To taste
Procedure:
  • To a mixer grinder jar, add garlic and walnuts and grind until they are coarsely ground
  • Add basil leaves and grind for 2 minutes
  • Now add the remaining ingredients (i.e., cheese, oil, pepper powder, salt and lime juice) and grind the pesto until it is chunky. Traditional pesto is supposed to be chunky and not super smooth, but I would say make it in accordance to your taste buds!!! 

Tips:

  • While washing the basil leaves, use cold water. Otherwise they will wilt and also lose their bright green colour. Drain off the water well before grinding them.
  • You may add couple more garlic cloves, if you like your pesto garlicky 
  • Add more olive oil if you wish to have a thinner consistency 
  • If pesto is exposed to air, it oxidizes and turns brown. In case, you wish to store the pesto for 2-5 days, store it in an airtight container with a layer of olive oil on top of it.

You can find the video of this recipe below.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Anex Monkey Smart Watch

Hello Readers,  Welcome back. While browsing through a weekly flyer by Canadian Tire, my eyes got hold of a smart watch, primarily for its name - Monkey Smart Watch. It's original price was $89.99. On account of Father's Day, the price was slashed 70% and offered for just $24.99 (from June 9th to June 16th).  As it was listed on Canadian Tire website, I thought the product should be genuine and googled to know more about the product. But there weren't sufficient reviews online. So I decided to try it myself and booked it online. This smart watch was launched in the last quarter of 2021 as Anex Monkey Smart Watch. Last year, it had been sold for just $19.99 as part of Black Friday deal. Even after 5 days of waiting, Canadian Tire didn't process my order. On the other hand, the stock was vanishing real quick and only 80 watches were available in our near by store. When checked with their customer service executive, I was told to cancel my online order or wait until they p
32 comments
Read more

Book: Sidney Sheldon's The Silent Widow by Tilly Bagshawe

If you are from 80s, like me, it is most likely you would have started your reading journey with a Sidney Sheldon's novel. Hands down, he is a master story teller known for his thrilling plots, inspiring characters, suspense and unexpected twists. Looking at the name of the book  Sidney Sheldon’s The Silent Widow , don't mistake it for written by Sidney Sheldon. Tilly Bagshawe is the author of this book.  Tilly Bagshawe is originally known as Matilda Emily Mary Bagshawe. She is a fictional writer who has written many international best-selling novels like Adored, Flawless, Temptation, The Show, The Bachelor etc.. Sidney Sheldon's estate thought Tilly's writing style is similar to Sidney Sheldon and chose her to write under his name. Thus far she has written 8 books as part of Sidney Sheldon series. Coming to the story of The Silent Widow, Nikki Roberts is the main character and she is a psychologist. She lost her husband in a car accident and since then is heartbroken n
Post a Comment
Read more

Recipe: Idiyappam | Sevai | String Hoppers

Idiyappam, is a well known break fast item in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka. It is also known as sevai or string hoppers (in English) and is primarily made out of rice floor. Like idli, idiyappam is made through steaming using no oil, making it very easily digestible and light on stomach.  When I think about idiyappam, I remember 2 instances from my childhood. One of my friend's mom, used to feed her 2 year old with different colourful sevais for evening snack - white, yellow, red along with a liquid version of it too, almost 3-4 times in a week. Later I learnt from her elder daughter (my friend) that they are coconut sevai (sweet version), lemon sevai, tomato sevai and rasam sevai. Though born and brought up in Chennai, we aren't much into idiyappams.  I don't remember eating them until I crossed 10 years. Whenever we visit a doctor with fever, our doctor used to give a list of food items - kanji, bread, idli, idiyappam and rasam rice, which I was usually averse to even
9 comments
Read more

Book: The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler

My knowledge on Buddha and Buddhism is limited to my school text books and some documentaries. I always wanted to know more about Buddha, his preachings and the philosophy of Buddhism. Few months back, I reached out to a book recommendation group on FB. Just within minutes, I received multiple suggestions on books on Buddhism, out of which I chose "The Art of Happiness" (the one with the highest number of recommendations). I decided to read it as the first book of 2024.  If you had been following me regularly, you would have known I wasn't successful at meeting my yearly reading goals. So unlike previous years, I wanted to adopt a different approach and goal towards reading, that could enable me to read more. I have explained about it at the end of this article.  For now, let me get into the topic "The Art of Happiness" is authored by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. His Holiness Dalai Lama needs no introduction. HH Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of th
4 comments
Read more

Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory

As the fall has set in, options for outings get limited, especially when we have kids. We recently visited a Butterfly Conservatory, at Cambridge, Ontario. It is completely indoor, so a plus for us to visit during fall and winters. It was re-opened in July 2021, after Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed. Entry is based on timed tickets (to be purchased online, as walk-ins aren't entertained these days due to Covid-19). 2 hours slot is allotted per ticket and face masks are mandatory, to ensure safety of visitors.   Now, coming to the Conservatory, it is set up in a tropical environment, which is essential for the survival of butterflies. It houses large varieties of free-flying butterflies and moths, tropical plants, birds, turtles, waterfalls and pond. Highlight is, one gets to see the four metamorphosis stages (i.e., egg, caterpillar, pupa and butterfly) of few varieties of the butterflies at the center. There is also a live display of insects and arthropods in the rooms adjacent
4 comments
Read more