This is another recipe that I saw in my blog feed a few weeks ago and said, “Hey, that looks tasty and doable!” The food blogger in this case is Jamie, who writes Stonesoup. I love this blog because most of her recipes involve five ingredients or so and can be made in minutes. And because it bothers me on a deep, visceral level to pay $4 for something I can make myself, I also decided to make my own pesto. However, at 9:30pm on Monday night, I was reminded why most people don’t do their grocery shopping at that time: the fresh herb section was pretty picked over. There was no basil to be found. I decided to make spinach pesto instead. I found a recipe for the spinach pesto here and the original carrot ribbon salad recipe can be found here.
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Spinach pesto
4 cups washed, torn spinach leaves, stems removed, well packed, 16 to 24 ounces
3 garlic cloves, halved
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil, crumbled (I used a few frozen basil leaves instead)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp. salt (I left this out)
Place a few spinach leaves, garlic, pine nuts, basil and a little oil in blender or food processor container. Cover and puree until leaves begin to look crushed. Continue adding spinach leaves a few at a time with small amounts of oil to blender, using a rubber spatula to help to combine pureed mixture. Add Parmesan cheese and 1/8 tsp. salt. Cover and process until spinach pesto mixture is smooth.
Carrot ribbon salad
serves 2
6 tablespoons pesto
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 large carrots, scrubbed
large handful roasted cashews (I toasted them instead because my oven is on the fritz)
1. Combine pesto, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in a large mixing bowl.
2. Using a vegetable peeler, shave carrots into wide ribbons.
3. Toss carrot ribbons in the dressing. Taste, season & serve with cashews sprinkled over.
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