A Pesto for all Seasons

I'm sure most of you already know pesto as that bright green pasta sauce made with tons of fresh basil and pine nuts. It's really easy (& quick!) to make, especially if you use a food processor or similar device.

There's a few problems though: (1) Basil is grown here as a summertime annual, meaning your wintertime cravings rely on imported herbs that probably aren't going to be of the same quality as summer's abundance. (2) If you've tried to purchase pine nuts lately, you'll notice they've become quite a commodity-- I saw them being sold for over $20 per pound! Pine nuts, literally the seed that develops in a pine cone, take about 18 months to develop. In that timespan, a lot can go wrong. This past year, for instance, the warmer temperature patterns in Utah meant that their pine trees didn't get the consistent nourishment from the snowpack they need, so a lot of the seeds never fully developed.

So what do you do when you can't make that classic pesto? Make it with kale and other nuts instead, of course! And you know what? It tastes amazing. Here's my favorite winter pesto recipe:

A Pesto for all Seasons (especially winter)

INGREDIENTS

Yields 1.5 - 2 cups.

• 1 bunch green kale (lacinato/dino is best) stripped from stems
  
• 3/4 cup walnuts & almonds, or any other nuts you have on hand
  
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and trimmed
  
• 1/2 lemon, for juice
  
• 1/2 cup shaved parmesan
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1 Place your nuts in the food processor, and chop them up a bit. They'll still remain pretty chunky and uneven, but that's okay. Add in the garlic, parmesan, and olive oil, then squeeze the juice from half a lemon in, too. Process this mixture for a few minutes, or until everything looks pretty evenly incorporated. Once it's at this stage, be sure to stop otherwise it will start getting overly thick.

2 Give your food processor a break while you prepare the greens. Be sure to wash them, and take out the tough stem in the center. You'll want to blanch them-- this can be done simply by bringing a pot of water to a boil, then dumping the kale in. Let them remain in the bath just long enough for the water to return to a boil (a few minutes), then quickly remove the greens to a colander and run under a cold-water shower.

3 Next, take the kale and squeeze the water out of it, handfuls at a time, and place the leaves in the food processor along with your nut and oil concoction. Process the greens in with everything until it has a uniform appearance! If you notice that some of the greens aren't being mixed in, take a spatula and shove them down towards where the blades are. This recipe makes relatively low-oil pesto, but you can feel free to add as much as you want for desired consistency.

SERVING

I almost love this version of pesto more than the classic basil version! Either works great on pasta (duh), but I also enjoy it as a sandwich spread, or a dip for veggies.

RELATED INFORMATION

My entry all about kale!

Taste Test #3: Shiney Diney Kale; Dino Kale

Name(s): Shiny Diney kale (pictured); similar to Lacinato ('Dino') kale
Availability in CA: These varieties are more often found Nov. - Apr. but some farmers can grow them year-round.
Characteristics: Kale is the 'dark, leafy green' your doctor means for you to eat. Aside from being good for you, kales can provide an array of tastes: raw leaves are more bitter, but cook for 10 - 15 minutes (steam or saute) and it will sweeten up a bit. If you're sick of your salad greens, try the hearty, full flavor of these guys!

Quinoa Bake

Quinoa is kind of one of those things that you just have to try, even if you're skeptical of it. In terms of nutrition, all sorts of people put it up on a pedestal. It's high in protein, containing a balanced set of amino acids, plus there's magnesium, phosphorus, iron, etc. It's really quite special, and can be happily substituted in a lot of places you would put some generic carb item that probably wouldn't give you as much protein. Of course, these days you can find quinoa pasta, flour, and any number of other processed items so you can really sneak it in there if you're interested in its health benefits but not much else.

To be honest, though, it actually tastes pretty great all on its own. It cooks up into light, airy halos of simple, slightly sweet, somewhat nutty flavor. It's prepared similarly to rice-- in fact you can use a rice cooker if you want. If you're interested in trying it during the winter season, but plain quinoa seems too bland, try a quinoa bake that uses sun-dried tomatoes to give it that warm-weather feel.

Quinoa Cheese Bake

INGREDIENTS

Yields about 6 servings.

• 8 ounces dark, leafy greens like kale or spinach
  
• 4 cups quinoa
  
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes- if you want to make them more tender, soak them in some olive oil
  
• 1/2 head of broccoli or cauliflower, broken into small florets
  
• 1 large onion, peeled, diced
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 tsp. fresh sage, chopped
  
• 3 oz. cheese, grated- gruyere or white cheddar work well
• 1 oz. cheese for topping, grated - try parmesan
  
• Olive oil and/or butter (there are oil people, and there are butter people!)
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1 Cook up your quinoa and set aside. To cook the raw germ, first rinse it thoroughly to dissolve the naturally occurring bitter coating on the outside. Most commercial quinoa is industrially rinsed, but it doesn't hurt to do this yourself anyway. Combine 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water, bring to boil for about 15 minutes, or until liquid is gone. That's all there is to it. Cut up your leafy greens into easy to chew strips

2 Prep your veggies. If your sun-dried tomatoes are suspended in a chunk of congealed olive oil, now's the time to let them defrost on the counter. Pull apart the head of broccoli or cauliflower so that the florets are somewhere between dime or quarter sized, depending on your preference. When all this is done, preheat your oven to 400ºF.

3 Heat up some olive oil in a pan, and add the diced onion. After a few minutes, add your garlic in, along with the florets, and let this begin to brown. When you think there's only about 3 minutes left until the florets are done, toss in the greens and the sun-dried tomatoes. After the 3 minutes, remove from heat.

4 Combine the quinoa and the mixture from the pan in a bowl. Add in the cheese, sage, and some s 'n p, and toss it until everything is incorporated evenly. Scoop it into a 9" x 9" casserole dish so that it creates a thick layer. You might want to tamp it down a bit so it is even. Then sprinkle your parmesan over the top.

4 Bake in the oven at 400ºF for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat in the oven, and let it sit for another 5 minutes before taking it out.

SERVING

Eat it warm and toasty, with any sort of seasonings you like. I made a little mixture of soy sauce and red wine vinegar for mine. Another thing that's nice about this dish is that it is easy to save and reheat the following days for lunch or dinner, and won't get a soggy texture.