As I sit here with a small but perfectly formed Jamesons whisky casting its amber shadow over the keyboard and the very definite tang of garlic and basil on my breath, I am filled with an enormous sense of well being - because I have a small jar of the greenest, most fragrant and absolutely dairy free pesto on a shelf in the fridge. It will be there when I get up tomorrow, like some super hero of the chiller, packed with energy, taste and colour - ready to zing up a bowl of vegetables or some delicate strips of egg noodle at the veritable drop of a hat.
This pesto is nothing like the dark green salty sludge that we used to buy in a jar. The oily slurry that tasted mostly of cheese and some indefinable herb - we assumed was basil. What fools we were to believe that this muck in any way resembled the uplifting herbal scent of basil. Where was that citrus top note? Where where the hints of minty freshness, the floral back notes - the rounded mouth filling garlicky burn? Cooked off in some factory somewhere before being labelled up with Sacla, or Tesco or Pesto King.
The point is that it was cooked, dead, denuded of the vitality that one inhales from a fresh bunch of basil and a newly crushed clove of garlic. And that is why dear readers, this month's 'Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free' challenge to create a dish that was 'un-cooked' demanded that I make some pesto.
I still have to be careful how much raw food I eat even though my gut has pretty much healed. It's a killer because I really could live on salad, fruit and nuts - granted, I prefer to cook my protein, but that's not the point. All that roughage needs to be broken down a little for my damaged gut to process, and cooking does the job perfectly, so I steam my veg, or roast it, or toss it in a pan with some ginger and stir fry.
What I miss most about having a large amount of raw food is how alive it is and how alive it makes you feel. If you don't have a damaged gut, try and eat 70% raw for a week and see how perky you feel. Ok your jaw might ache from all that chewing, but your skin will glow, eyes shine and your trousers will probably feel a little looser. At Glastonbury we stopped by the raw food cafe so I could gawp at the amazing salads they had there (on the off-chance that any of it was edible for me - nope) we were greeted by the healthiest looking man I think I ever saw. I mean, it was almost a religious experience for me! He glowed with the kind of health that comes from a sense of inner well being, his skin was flawless and his eyes were as clear as glass. I pined for my old un-cooked ways then, looking at those vibrant salads and happy raw food chefs.
So Cheryl, this pesto is my celebration of all things simple, raw and alive. Because I'm not eating dairy or seeds yet, I've replaced the pine nuts and Parmesan with ground almonds and cashew butter. It makes a creamy mild pesto, where the basil is king and the garlic brings up the rear. It goes down well with kids who think pine nuts are a bit funky and is perfect for SCD newbies.
This pesto is nothing like the dark green salty sludge that we used to buy in a jar. The oily slurry that tasted mostly of cheese and some indefinable herb - we assumed was basil. What fools we were to believe that this muck in any way resembled the uplifting herbal scent of basil. Where was that citrus top note? Where where the hints of minty freshness, the floral back notes - the rounded mouth filling garlicky burn? Cooked off in some factory somewhere before being labelled up with Sacla, or Tesco or Pesto King.
The point is that it was cooked, dead, denuded of the vitality that one inhales from a fresh bunch of basil and a newly crushed clove of garlic. And that is why dear readers, this month's 'Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free' challenge to create a dish that was 'un-cooked' demanded that I make some pesto.
I still have to be careful how much raw food I eat even though my gut has pretty much healed. It's a killer because I really could live on salad, fruit and nuts - granted, I prefer to cook my protein, but that's not the point. All that roughage needs to be broken down a little for my damaged gut to process, and cooking does the job perfectly, so I steam my veg, or roast it, or toss it in a pan with some ginger and stir fry.
What I miss most about having a large amount of raw food is how alive it is and how alive it makes you feel. If you don't have a damaged gut, try and eat 70% raw for a week and see how perky you feel. Ok your jaw might ache from all that chewing, but your skin will glow, eyes shine and your trousers will probably feel a little looser. At Glastonbury we stopped by the raw food cafe so I could gawp at the amazing salads they had there (on the off-chance that any of it was edible for me - nope) we were greeted by the healthiest looking man I think I ever saw. I mean, it was almost a religious experience for me! He glowed with the kind of health that comes from a sense of inner well being, his skin was flawless and his eyes were as clear as glass. I pined for my old un-cooked ways then, looking at those vibrant salads and happy raw food chefs.
So Cheryl, this pesto is my celebration of all things simple, raw and alive. Because I'm not eating dairy or seeds yet, I've replaced the pine nuts and Parmesan with ground almonds and cashew butter. It makes a creamy mild pesto, where the basil is king and the garlic brings up the rear. It goes down well with kids who think pine nuts are a bit funky and is perfect for SCD newbies.
Dairy Free Pesto (SCD) 4-6 portions
1 1/2 oz bunch of fresh basil
1/3 cup ground almonds
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt flakes (less if grains)
1 tsp cashew or white almond butter
1/2 cup light flavoured olive oil
juice of 1/4 - 1/2 a lemon
Skin and squash the garlic. Chuck everything except the oil into a food processor and blitz until a green mush forms. Scrape down once and add half the oil, blitz again and add the rest of the oil, leaving the machine running until the mixture is smooth and creamy looking.
The mixture will be quite thick at this point which I like - To use it for pasta, I just scrape out a spoonful and add a little oil and a teaspoon of water before coating the pasta in it. But you could also stir it into mayonnaise, hung yogurt, pureed vegetables, add it to steamed vegetables with a knob of butter or a drizzle of oil - or just dip some crudites right into the jar as it is. You'll be about half way through before you stop and think - 'hey, isn't this supposed to have cheese in it?'
Fin ate his pesto with grain free egg tagliatelle pictured below (or as he calls it - omelette pasta). To make the pasta I just make some wafer thin egg crepes with a whole egg and a tablespoon of water per egg (two eggs per person) roll them up and slice into thin strips. Hey presto!
1/3 cup ground almonds
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt flakes (less if grains)
1 tsp cashew or white almond butter
1/2 cup light flavoured olive oil
juice of 1/4 - 1/2 a lemon
Skin and squash the garlic. Chuck everything except the oil into a food processor and blitz until a green mush forms. Scrape down once and add half the oil, blitz again and add the rest of the oil, leaving the machine running until the mixture is smooth and creamy looking.
The mixture will be quite thick at this point which I like - To use it for pasta, I just scrape out a spoonful and add a little oil and a teaspoon of water before coating the pasta in it. But you could also stir it into mayonnaise, hung yogurt, pureed vegetables, add it to steamed vegetables with a knob of butter or a drizzle of oil - or just dip some crudites right into the jar as it is. You'll be about half way through before you stop and think - 'hey, isn't this supposed to have cheese in it?'
Fin ate his pesto with grain free egg tagliatelle pictured below (or as he calls it - omelette pasta). To make the pasta I just make some wafer thin egg crepes with a whole egg and a tablespoon of water per egg (two eggs per person) roll them up and slice into thin strips. Hey presto!
If you'd like to enter something un-cooked for this month's 'Go Ahead Honey!' then head over to Cheryl's Blog and check out the event details. I can't wait to see what people didn't cook......
12 comments:
This is a great recipe that I'm gonna bookmark for my dairy free friends! Thanks again for such a great dish!
Great idea!
I love pesto. And lucky me, this year my garden is full of basil And cucumbers that seem to have their littly spiny eyes on every ounce of free sunshine space. Grrr.
oh, that looks lovely! my basil just needs to get up to speed.
Thanks for this tasty post! I am going to have to go make some now that the garden is going crazy. Yummy! I can't wait!
Ciao a tutti!!
Here in italy, the "official" recipe (I am not joking, there is and official recipe!) of pesto alla Genovese is this one:
4 bunches of fresh basil
250ml extra vergin olive oil (not strong one)
Cheese (seasoned): 3 tsb parmiggiano and 3 tsb Pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese)
Garlic: 2-3 cloves (1 for each 30 leaves of basil)
1 tsb pine-seed
Sea salt
I do it in the food processor…. Even if this is a kind of sin… Anyway, be really careful when you clean and dry the basil, leafs must not break! Add in this order, basic, garlic, salt, when they became a “pureè” add basil then pine-seed and cheese. Finally the olive oil really slowly.
No almond, no butter, no vegetable oil, no lemon.
Enjoy it!
Itsasne
PS: I hope you understand my english…
OUH!! add a bit of the water where you have boiled the pasta to make it a bit more liquit if necessary
Itsasne,
Thank you for your delicious sounding recipe. Of course you realise that I made the pesto without pine nuts, cheese etc and definitely no pasta water, because I cannot eat those things and am making substitutions.
I'm sure millions of Genovese cooks would turn in their graves if they saw how far my recipe fell from the official version. But here in Bridport we're smearing it on everything.
Your English is great - don't apologise for it.
x x x
Hi! I'm italian and I come from Genova, the city in which Pesto was created. Your Pesto is wrong.
You must not use butter, almond and lemon.
You must use: salt, fresh basil, pine seed, parmigiano reggiano, oil extravergine of olive and garlic.
Bye and sorry for my english.
Aha! another anonymous Italian? Why are you guys so secretive about your identities and yet so quick to tell the rest of us how things should be done?
I don't want any more comments about how pesto 'should' be made - they are not wanted here thank you!
I am perfectly well aware of the traditional recipe for pesto and but I provide an 'alternative' recipe which allows those of us that can't eat pine nuts and cheese to sample something similar - but not authentically Genovese.
Maybe you're reading the wrong blog?
Dear Naomi,
Just a quick note to thank you for taking time and effort to make this pesto, and your generosity of sharing it with the rest of us. I have so many food allergies, that I lost count. And my son with autism is on a very strict diet as well. Thanks to cooks like you me and my son can eat :-) Keep up your good work :-) Sorry for my Enlish too, as I am not native Enlish speaker :-)
STOP eating rapeseed oil! it has too much omega 6 and you get enough of that from the nuts. don't ever use vegetable oil (it's soy junk and bleached and horribly treated with chemicals)
use raw tahini if you are allergic to nuts and stick with pine nuts (which are SEEDS) for the almonds.
as for the noodles, use a spirooli or saladacco and go to town with whatever is fresh - carrots, zucchini (courgettes), yellow (marrow) squash, butternut squash, beets, etc. have a ball. make clouds of vegetable noodles and let them sit out in the air to dry a little bit.
anonymous, hey! we wish you had a name!
I hear what you say about rapeseed oil, I barely eat it myself and use a little walnut oil if I need it as it has a much higher ratio of omega 3 to omega 6. I would never touch soya oil and mostly just use the natural fat that is present in whatever fish, meat or nuts that I eat, or use a little butter.
Pesto is one food that can't be made with animal fat or butter, so I make a concession for olive, walnut or rapeseed oil in the understanding that it forms part of a diet that is low in cereals and high in leaves, walnuts, free range meat and lots of oily fish.
x x x
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