We eat that much pesto that I thought it was time to shake it up a bit!
This zesty hemp seed pesto is completely nut free and dairy free (vegan) and is a great alternative to the OG. Use the pesto on pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes like I have done or skip the pasta use the pesto as a dip, yum!
Normally I wouldn’t recommend making pesto in a bullet blender as ingredients get stuck at the top and don’t get blended properly. BUT the @ninjakitchenapac Nutri Duo Blender has a cool contraption at the top that moves the ingredients at the top down so that it all gets blended perfectly!
Ingredients
- Pesto
- 1 1/2 cups basil leaves firmly packed
- ⅓ cup hemp seeds
- 2 medium garlic cloves
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- Juice of 1 lemon (approx. 35-40ml)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oilal)
To Serve
500g cherry tomatoes
1 packet spaghetti or pasta of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
- Fill a large pan of water up to 2/3 of the way and add a few good pinches of sea salt. Bring to the boil. While the water comes to the boil, place the cherry tomatoes into a baking dish drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Toss to combine. Place baking dish into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add all pesto ingredients to the @ninjakitchenapac Nutri duo blender and blend to combine.
- Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti or pasta and stir occasionally to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom. Once cooked to al dente, reserve 1 cup of pasta water before removing the pan from the heat and straining.
- Add the pasta back into the pan along with the pesto and a dash of the pasta water. Stir through to combine.
- Once the tomato skins are blistered, remove from the oven. Serve the pesto pasta topped with the roasted cherry tomatoes.