Red Pepper Pesto
Servings 8, Preparation Time 30 minutes
Red Peppers are the main attraction in this pesto sauce. For your convenience, we choose jarred peppers, and this is a good way to start. During the late summer months, an abundance of fresh peppers come to market and you may choose to start with those. Using your barbecue, or oven, you can roast the peppers yourself. Let them cool and peel the skins. You can even skip the roasting and use whole raw peppers. We have used jarred, freshly roasted, and raw peppers, in red, orange, and yellow colours. All the combinations and permutations have resulted in a delicious sauce.
- 3 large roasted bell peppers from the jar, rinsed and drained (1½ packed cups)
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes or ½ tablespoon of tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 cloves fresh garlic or teaspoon granulated garlic
- Optional, ¼ teaspoon chilli pepper flakes
- Optional, fresh basil leaves
- Optional, salt and black pepper
- With the exception of the chilli pepper flakes, basil, salt and black pepper, add all the ingredients into your blender or food processor
- Blend until smooth
- Taste the mixture, and add a little salt to suit your taste
- Chop and mix in the basil leaves
- Add and stir in chilli pepper flakes if you want to add a little extra zing.
Pine nuts add a little fat to carry the flavour. Using whole nuts instead of their extracted oils carries a few advantages. Extracted oils are a form of junk food much like table sugar because you are left with a food ingredient that has lost the antioxidants, vitamins, materials, and fibre that contribute to making healthy food. Free flowing oils are easy to overuse and may add an abundance of empty calories. Whole nuts offer the complete package of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fibre. If you do not have pine nuts, use your favourite nut as a substitute. Almonds and cashews would be our recommended substitute.
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