Perfect Pea Pesto Pasta

Lately I have had lots of people asking for vegan/vegetarian recipes, so I am going to try to make one vegan/vegetarian dish and one meat/chicken dish a week. When it comes to food, I love stepping out of my comfort zone. It encourages me to explore and create new dishes!

I am excited about this new challenge and hope you will join me on this journey, and remember if you have any requests or suggestions feel free to share them with me. This pea pesto recipe is healthy and tasty. I also ate it with crackers, so it can be served as a nutritious dip.

And if you are a peas lover like me, then it’s a real TREAT! I like to jazz things up and added tomatoes to the pasta. I have included the recipe as an option. The quantity of pasta will determine how thick the pesto will be. I used 400g of pasta, but if you want more pesto less pasta just use a smaller amount of pasta.

Please note: by omitting the cheese or replacing it with a vegan alternative, this pesto easily becomes a vegan dish.

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Ingredients

• 2 cups packed basil

• 1/2 cup packed continental parsley

• 1 1/4 cup green peas (if frozen, thawed)

• 6-8 cloves garlic crushed

• 1/4 cup pine nuts

• 1 medium lemon, juiced approx 30 ml of lemon juice

• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese or (if you’re vegan) vegan cheese

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 400g spaghetti

Tomato topping

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

• 3 cloves garlic crushed

• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves

• 1 punnet golden tomatoes cut in half

• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes cut in half

• Salt and pepper to taste

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Method

1. Fill a large pot with water approx 3/4 full. Add salt about a tablespoon and bring to a boil. Add pasta and stir to ensure the pasta doesn’t stick. Once pasta is cooked rinse in a sieve.

2. With a handheld blender, mix basil, parsley, peas, garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice, parmesan cheese/vegan cheese, salt and pepper.

3. Slowly stream in olive oil and blend until all you get a nice thick paste. Scrape down the sides to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.

4. Transfer cooked pasta to a large bowl, and stir in the pesto.

Tomato topping

1. Heat the oil, fry the garlic until fragrant (1 min) add chopped tomatoes salt, pepper, parsley and stir for three minutes.

2. Mix tomatoes with the pasta and serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Love,

Nava

PS - I love hearing from you! Let me know how it went and feel free to spread the word/passion/love, the more the merrier!

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