When it comes to a healthful eating pattern and nutrition, eating home-cooked food is a great place to start! Cooking at home allows us to choose and have control over the ingredients that we put into our food, and also gives us a chance to get creative in the kitchen!
The Mediterranean diet is a healthful nutrition approach to eating that predominantly includes large amounts of vegetables, fruit, beans, legumes, whole grains, fish and lean poultry, as well as unsaturated fats from nuts, avocado and olives. No matter what diet plan one follows, eating less processed foods is always a good idea.
This easy recipe for cilantro pesto combines fresh flavors like those found in chimichurri with plant-based omega 3 fatty acids from walnuts, to make a rich and creamy sauce that can be used over pasta dishes, as a marinade for tofu or lean meat or fish, can be a topper for pizza, eaten with veggies as a dip, or to flavor your hummus! You can sub basil in place of cilantro if you prefer. If you wish to cut down on the oil, you can add extra walnuts and extra water in its place.
Ingredients:
2 cups rough chopped cilantro with stems
1/3 cup walnuts, pieces
Four cloves of garlic, peeled
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Half cup water with a little extra for during grinding
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp)
Method:
- Prep cilantro and garlic
- Add all ingredients to a food processor and grind
- While grinding if mixture is thick, add extra water in small increments until it is grinding smoothly