The mild weather we've been having this week really has me looking forward to summer. Traditional pesto is one of my favorite summer meals. I've been craving it, but fresh basil is hard to come by this time of year (summer please hurry!). A quick Internet search turned up a recipe for a pumpkin seed pesto. I didn't have all the ingredients, so I searched for a few more similar recipes and decided to combine them using what I already had. The result was very interesting. At first all I could taste was the cilantro. Like swamp soup, this is a recipe for cilantro fans. After I few seconds I started to taste the pumpkin seeds. The nutritional yeast and garlic added a kick to the flavors to give this dish a unique taste. It's no basil pesto, but it'll do until I get those basil plants growing!
I planned on eating this with spaghetti squash, assuming I had one. It was actually a butternut squash that I had, so I served this over pasta instead. I ate this cold, but it was just as good warm when I ate the leftovers the next day.
Pumpkin Seed Cilantro Pesto
Makes 4 servings
- 2/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1 bunch of cilantro, thick stems removed
- 4 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 1 garlic clove
- Dash of salt
- Roasted red peppers for garnish
- Combine all ingredients (except the peppers) in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
- Serve over pasta or spaghetti squash, and garnish with roasted red peppers and extra pumpkin seeds.
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