How do you feel about pesto?
Me? I can mostly take it or leave it. UNLESS it’s on a pizza. but then I pretty much always take ANYTHING and EVERYTHING if it’s on a pizza, so that’s not really a fair thing to say. I think it’s something to do with the pine nuts and all that basil.
Anyway, a friend of mine, some other of my favorite mamas, and I were talking about getting kiddos to eat veggies (so far the sweet potato & spinach mac ‘n cheese and veggie puree’ squeeze pouches have been my only success stories) and my sweet friend said that kale pesto was THE way to go. On sweet potatoes, on pasta, whatever. It was GREEN and her little lady ate it up.
I know that pine nuts are standard in pesto, but I kind of think they taste like pinesol…plus a neighbor had given me a HUGE sack of pecans a while back that I’d frozen, and I had a block of parmesean, and kale isn’t that hard to come by, so I was game. Also, this is Mess of Greens, so you KNOW I was going to “southern” it up some way, right? (In fact, I considered using turnip greens, which may be a recipe coming soon… but since I was making this for Wagner I thought nutrient rich kale was the better choice.)
Guess what? It worked. I have a stock pile of it in my freezer RIGHT now and my little dude is a big fan. And so is my big dude.
Want to try it out (for pizza, or pasta, or sandwiches, or toddlers?) here you go.
Kale Greens & Toasted Pecan Pesto
Serves: A zillion
What you need:
First things first, do you have a food processor? If not, stop here as an immersion blender wand just won’t do.
Also…
1 Bunch of kale (5-6 cups)
1 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
3-5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 cup olive oil
1 cup pecans, toasted
Kosher Salt (a teaspoon or two)
A squeeze of lemon (not necessary, I just like lemon)
What you do:
Start with the toasted pecans. Turn your oven onto broil, and spread your pecans out onto a baking sheet or pie pan. Spray them lightly with cooking oil spray, and put them in the oven until they turn a nice deep golden brown (probably not more than 5 minutes). While you’re toasting those peacns, shred your Parmesan cheese, wash and tear up your kale leaves (if it comes in a bag, check for tiny pieces of stem, and if it’s a bunch of kale, pull the leafy greens from the stem. you don’t need that part if you’re new to the world of kale).
Measure out the oil and smash the garlic. Dont’ get carried away smashing or mincing as you’re going to be thowing it all into the food processor in a minute anyway.
Throw all of your ingredients into your food processor and blend away. (I had to do mine in two equal sized batches, which turned out just fine).
Once you’ve got a lovely green paste, you’re set! serve over pasta, on pizza, over toast. or just eat spoonfuls from the blender. I won’t tell. 😉
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