Thai basil pesto
by Tanya
Weekend prior, I had made a pitcher of delicious Thai basil sangria for a gathering I co-hosted. (The drink was a hit and disappeared within the hour, thank you Food & Wine!) I found myself with still quite a bit of left over basil, as well as a bunch of fresh mint that was left from a yogurt-mint sauce I prepared for lamb kabobs. (More on those at another point; I discovered the lamb mix also makes for an excellent meatloaf, while the mint-yogurt sauce serves as a fantastic marinade for chicken).
So, with all those fresh herbs, I made a pesto. The recipe is a combination of several different recipes I found online. A lot of the pesto recipes using the more spicy Thai basil also called for the addition of fish sauce; generally, I love the phish sauce – especially in a bowl of vermicelli noodles at a phở joint – but I wanted to keep the recipe as simple and vegan friendly as possible. Myself, I’m an omnivore, but I like to try and make sure that I can prepare at least a few good things that would be absolutely OK to serve to some of my vegan friends.
Thai Basil Pesto
Ingredients:
- 1 and 1/2 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves (it adds… something extra, I don’t know what it is!)
- 1/3 cup blanched almonds (but you could use other nuts you like, maybe pine nuts or peanuts?)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp agave syrup
- 1/3 cup olive oil (or a little more to help with blending & if you like less chunky texture)
- 1/2 tbsp rice wine viegar
- 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper or chili flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
Put all the ingredients in a food processor and chop’n’grind. That’s it. Keep refrigerated.
Things you can do with the pesto: EVERYTHING. It’s so nomnom delicious. So far, I’ve had it on chicken, on a pesto and cheese sandwich, and this morning with some poached eggs & Hollandaise on an English muffin. Let me know how you like it!
We loved this. We tossed it with udon noodles and sauteed veggies in sesame seed oil (zucchini, snow peas, red pepper). Then we topped our bowls with grilled shrimp skewers seasoned with chili powder and garlic salt.
Yay! That sounds DELISH. I like the idea of topping it with the shrimp skewers!
I was so excited to find a vegan pesto recipe for my Thai basil. I do think the amount of agave makes this just a touch too sweet. I will definitely make it again, just with less (or no) sweetener. Thanks for sharing!