Mar

Macadamia Nut Pesto – peace. love. quinoa

Mar 12

One of the things I reminisce the most about Hawaii is the macadamia nut. Everything “macadamia nut” is readily available everywhere you go – including macadamia nut pesto, macadamia nut coffee, macadamia nut butter, macadamia nut encrusted everything, and so much more that I don’t want to talk about because I’m not in Hawaii to eat it.

Two months later, and I’m still on a high from my trip to O’ahu, maybe it’s because my best friend visited a few weeks after me and I’m re-living the island lifestyle through her, or maybe it’s because that trip was just THAT good for me/us. Either way, the high feels good.

After reading the first few paragraphs of this blog post, I’m sure it’s OBVIOUS where my inspiration for this recipe came from. (clue: Hawaii)

I’m a sucker for non-traditional pesto recipes, and I like to keep them around, not only because I’m a condiment junkie, but also because a dollop of pesto can turn a bland meal in to a flavorful one.

For instance, last night I sautéed some kale, rice, and black beans, and then tossed it all in a spoonful of this pesto. Without the pesto, my meal was not a meal – it was simply a few ingredients thrown together, the pesto tied the 3 ingredients together and made it a complete, savory, well-balanced meal, flavor-bursting-at-the-seams. My boyfriend ate my leftovers, it was nice of me to allow him. And anyway, I have more of that pesto in the refrigerator so I could potentially do it all over again tonight.

Macadamia Nut Pesto

Author: peace. love. quinoa

Ingredients

¼ cup macadamia nuts
1 cup fresh parsley
1 cup fresh basil
1-2 cloves garlic
½ cup coconut oil (or olive oil if you choose)
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of pepper

Instructions

Put all ingredients in a food processor and puree.

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In this recipe, I used coconut oil because coconut oil goes really well with macadamia nuts (think: Hawaii) however the one thing that I don’t like about coconut oil is that it hardens up when refrigerated. It’s not big deal, I simply allow my pesto to warm up to room temp prior to using it. Just because I used coconut oil, doesn’t mean that you have to – this recipe is just as good with olive oil. Assess the situations that you will be using this pesto in, and make a choice based on the flavors you will be blending – voilà.

This pesto will freeze nicely, so I recommend you double your batch and keep some for later!
(that’s what I did)

MAHALO.

Tagged with → coconut • condiment • green • healthy • Macadamia Nut • pesto • recipe • vegan