Scale
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed open, skins removed
- 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 tablespoon unsalted sunflower seeds
- 2 inches of the white part of a scallion (green onion), chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon raw honey
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Gently heat the oil in a small pan with the garlic cloves to infuse the oil with flavor and gently cook the garlic (it should not brown). Do not boil or overheat the oil.
- Remove from the heat and let cool while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Place all the remaining ingredients and the cooled cooked garlic in a food processor and pulse 8 to 10 times until well chopped. Scrape down the sides, then turn the food processor on and drizzle in the oil.
- Blend until saucy. You can also do this in a blender, just be careful not to over-puree—it’s nice with a little bit of texture left.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This sauce also freezes well.
Notes
Serving Suggestions:
– Toss it with blanched green beans (one of my favorites!)
– Drizzle over any type of fish or grilled chicken
– Mix with cooked spaghetti squash noodles, rice noodles or chickpea noodles
– Roast regular or sweet potatoes (or half and half) then toss them in this sauce right out of the oven
– Use it as a salad dressing or drizzle over any cooked veggies
Hi Elizabeth, I love this and partly because it’s pretty much what I like to do myself ! So it’s nice to see you do that too – and that makes me feel goood. I do it in a similar way, I even use sunflower seeds in mine but i don’t do the honey and vinegar part, so I can see how yours can be more versatile as a dressing! I started when I decided I was thinking I didn’t want to pay out too often for a jar of pesto and then I happened to have none in when I was making one of my favourite dishes with pesto – so I made my own. I also like to use less oil than in the bought pesto. Instead of pesto pine nuts I used sunflower seeds. I also sometimes add almonds. I like to see lots of goodness going into it. Mostly I do just basil for this but sometimes I do cilantro and mint, cilantro and parsley, or mint and basil but I haven’t mixed them all up so I will try. I really feel in tune with what you do. Thank-you for doing it ! Interesting you cook the garlic. I know raw is better and raw is in normal pesto, but my hubbie doesn’t like raw garlic so I have to be careful with how much I use. I’m going to try your method soon – we grow all these herbs too. Thank-you so much !
One BIG question, what do you mean when you say RAW honey? I tried to use Agave in your brownie recipe once ( the only other thing I have cooked so far – I will do more I promise_ but it didn’t work out so well so I bought honey recently to retry. There are so many names and definitions out for honey and I want to buy the best so I’d love to understand what you mean by RAW so I make sure i get the best one too.
I drool just reading the recipes…can see where I am going to be doing a lot of testing!
Everything I have experienced on this site is so helpful, as a single man who wants to eat healthy and enjoy great food, I always appreciate what I learn