Vegan pea & avocado pesto with tricoloured pasta

Just like the previous week when i got strong – and weird cravings for chickpea omelettes, i now got strong cravings for basil, or more specifically pasta with basil.

So i went to a food store and bought a few ingredients so i could make pasta with pesto for lunch!

Traditionally pesto is made using alot of basil, parmeson and pinenuts…. however i needed to make a budget friendly and vegan pesto, so decided to just throw together some of the things i had at home to make my version of pesto. Which resulted in a pea& avocado pesto which turned out so good. Truth, i haven’t actually had store bought pesto in a long time so i don’t know how it would compare to the “real thing”, but i think i managed rather well for not following a recipe.

Also, this pesto is a little more high protein from the peas and more fiber – and the avocado adds extra creaminess!

I also realised afterwards that i could have added cashews or even tofu to the pesto and that would have added more creaminess…. but i think mine turned out great just the way i made it!

The recipe for the pesto below:

Ingredients:

1 basil “plant”

c.a 2-4 cloes garlic

c.a 300g frozen peas that you heat up

1/2-1 avocado

c.a 50ml sunflower seeds (or pinenuts) [can be omitted. If you don’t have a very good food mixer they may not be mixed and then it’s best to skip adding the seeds]

c.a 100ml oil (& more if necessary, or add water)

Salt & pepper

How to:

Begin with heating the peas if they are frozen. While they are dethawing begin to peel and chop the garlic.

Add the peas, basil, garlic, avocado, sunflower seeds and c.a 50-100ml oil into a bowl or food processor and mix. Add more oil(or water) as needed. Add seasoning according to taste.

This recipe makes quite alot of pesto, so if you are just making 1 or 2 servings i am sure you could half the recipe! 🙂 Also, not so sure how long it will last in the fridge…. but if you use water instead of oil (i don’t recommend!! Don’t be afraid of using oil!!) it won’t last as long.