Recipe: Creamy Vegan Pesto

It's not easy being green. Or having too many greens in your fridge. So I decided to use up some of the greens I got in a recent Fresh Fork Market CSA bag by making pesto. I loosely followed this recipe for simple vegan pesto, but I improvised. A lot. Mainly because the basil plant in my garden is growing at a snail's pace, but still...

The result? A frighteningly green but amazingly delicious pasta dish.

Creamy vegan pesto over farfalle pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 cup basil leaves
• 2 cups greens - kale, swiss chard, etc.
• 3/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or sunflower seeds
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons vegan cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• almond milk - add as needed to create a creamy texture/consistency

Method:

1. Put all ingredients in food processor of blender and mix until creamy and smooth. Add almond milk as needed to create thinner consistency.
2. Serve over pasta, on bread, or any other way you like to eat pesto. 

This was possibly the easiest recipe ever. We had to do some finagling to get the taste right. Depending on the greens you use, your sauce could taste too green. If you add too much garlic, the sauce can be overpowering. Add nutritional yeast at your own discretion, too. A little goes a long way, but if you like the flavor of it, by all means, add more. I've read that this recipe is good if you add vegan parmesan cheese into it, but I didn't have enough on hand to try it. But I did sprinkle some on top of my pasta and it definitely enhanced the flavor of the pesto. Overall, this was a quick and easy way to make up some fresh sauce and use up a lot of our greens. I'll definitely be making this again!