Nutrient Packed Healing Pesto
J peeling the garlic for our pesto
We made this Pesto in the Autumn one day when I was feeling poorly. I was about to chop up some garlic and take it with a warm lemon juice chaser when inspiration struck. “Why not include some fresh greens to the lemon and garlic and make a delicious pesto?” Into the garden I went to forage what little greens we might have. What a wonderful way to load my body up with nutrients (and eat lots of garlic while I am at it).
Having just come through a month of coughs, colds and flu in our house, I thought it was timely to share with you this simple, cheap and easy to make pesto that is delicious on toast, on eggs or in a salad. If you don’t have any ‘wild weeds’ in your garden, head to your folks or visit a green fingered friend and raid their patch. I’m sure they will be happy to supply ingredients in return for a delicious and nutrient packed snack.
A powerhouse of nutrients
What makes this Pesto so packed full of nutrients is not just the greens, but the lemons and garlic. Lemons are super high in Vitamin C and because our bodies do not make this Vitamin naturally, we need to ensure we take regular high doses if we are sick. Garlic has amazing anti-bacterial, anti microbial qualities which gives this pesto potential to kick that cold in the butt. Not everyone enjoys garlic. When I am sick I will take garlic breath anyday over blocked sinuses and a sore throat so I pack alot of garlic in the mix and my body loves it.
The other ingredients include some form of nuts or seeds and these don’t have to be expensive Pine nuts. Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds do the trick. If you are lucky enough to have walnuts, cashews or macadamias even better. We used macadamias that we bought from a farm gate stall and cracked ourselves. Yum yum!
Lastly you will need a good quality cold-pressed oil and we prefer Olive Oil. Don’t ruin your healing pesto with Canola and Soybean Oils as these are hard on the body, highly processed and most often made with Genetically Modified Crops. No thank you.
Cold pressed juicer at work
Ingredients
Handful of fresh greens out of the garden (Ideally 2-3cups)
The juice of one lemon
The rind of one lemon – try not to get too much of the white pith or your pesto will be bitter.
As much Garlic as you can handle (I used a whole bulb)
A cup of seeds or nuts of your choice.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
A few years ago we invested in a cold-pressed juicer. We mostly use this to make fresh juice, however it has a different fitting that you can use to make nut butters, bliss balls and pesto. It makes the whole job incredibly easy. You will get the same effects with a food processer and until we had a juicer we used a hand blender. If you have none of these modern day machines, you can go old school and use a mortar and pestle though you will need a lot of patience.
Served up with fresh tomatoes on sourdough bread.
I would have prefered to have more greens in my autumn pesto however we did not have too much on offer at that time. The final pesto was a little on the nutty side, however tasted delicious and garlicky and everyone in the family gobbled their toast down so it was a winner for all!
If you have any tried and true recipes from the garden for keeping healthy and well when your poorly then please share below in the comments.
WIshing you all wellness this winter and going into spring x
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