Recipe: Parsley Pesto

My garden is overrun with a prolifically producing parsley plant (try saying that three times quickly!). Much as I love parsley, adding it to sauces, stews and other meals as a seasoning just wasn't cutting down on the supply as quickly as I'd hoped. I thought about making a tabbouleh salad, but when I checked the meal plan and saw we were having pasta that night, the idea of a parsley pesto was born.

It's not a very traditional pesto - I didn't have any nuts to add to it, so I substituted tahini. I also left out the cheese, choosing instead to use nutritional yeast. Despite all of that, or perhaps in spite of the changes, it was a delicious concoction, tasting fresh and green and yummy. It made way more pesto than I needed for pasta (I filled a 250g jar), so I've also been eating it in sandwiches and dolloped on top of pizza.

Parsley Pesto
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Ingredients:

• 2 cups parsley leaves
• 1 tblsp tahini
• 2 tblsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves peeled garlic
• tsp sea salt (or to taste)
• juice from 1/2 a lemon (or to taste)

Method:

1. Place everything in a processor and process until desired consistency.

Notes:

• This will keep very nicely in the fridge for some time (although I don't think it will last long at the rate it's being eaten!)
• I hate waste, so I froze the parsley stems for use in a soup or stew or to make stock

Do you have a favourite, non traditional, type of pesto?