This recipe is so light and delicious, but has a powerful flavor punch. It's great on pasta, spread on crostini as an appetizer or an amazing dip for fresh fruits and veggies. A scoop of it in your favorite salad dressing can rock your world. Brushed on to grilled chicken or fish, it can really dress up a dinner. Plus, it's super easy to make and oh so pretty!
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
3T raw almonds
1/2t pink Himalayan salt
1/4c Locatelli Pecorino Romano grated cheese
vegans: use 2T nutritional yeast instead of cheese + up your salt to 1t
I soaked my celery leaves and stalks in water with a dot of natural soap, then drained and plucked all the leaves off. I chopped the stalks and added to the cole slaw I was already making. Using a food processor, add the garlic and salt and chop. add in the almonds and drizzle in the olive oil while running the processor on chop. Add the celery leaves and grated cheese and blend until desired consistency. I like mine chunk free, but you can still see bits and pieces of the leaves.
You'll see I used a magic bullet in the pictures, but a food processor or high speed blender work best. My food processor was dirty from shredding carrots, and I didn't feel like washing it. I told you this would be real life cooking, didn't I?
As I was dipping apple slices into my freshly made pesto, I realized it would taste great on the slaw I was already making, so here's a bonus recipe for you! 1/2 purple cabbage shredded, 2 carrots shredded, 1/4c green onions (tip: cut a bunch ahead and freeze in a ziplock. Grab and use as needed, they thaw almost immediately), 1t salt and 1/2t pepper, 1/4c olive oil, 1/4c cider vinegar, and two big spoonfuls of celery almond pesto. Toss well and chill for at least 30 min before serving. We had ours as a side with chicken teriyaki and rice. Recipe coming soon.
The very next night, my middle son requested we participate in Taco Tuesday and luckily enough I had planned cod for dinner that night and I hadn't seasoned it yet. A little shake of my homemade taco seasoning before baking my fish (20 minutes in a 200 degree oven), and we had a delicious, simple dinner. Fish, salsa and vegan cheese for the kids, and you guessed it! A spread of celery almond pesto, fish, a scoop of leftover pesto slaw and a dot of sriracha to fancy it up for the grownups. We've been eating leftover slaw all week, plus I've been snacking on the rest of the pesto. Delicious, healthy and definitely counts as eating the rainbow.
Prep and Cook Time
Celery Almond Pesto: 5 minutes
Purple Cabbage Slaw: 15 minutes
Baked Fish: 1 minute or less to season, 20 min to cook
Taco Assembly: 5 minutes or less for the whole family's servings