Poor Man’s Pesto Recipe

Pesto is a delicious sauce traditionally made with pine nuts, basil, and parmesan cheese. It’s particularly great with pasta but can enhance an assortment of dishes including meat, chicken, and fish. You may be thinking, pesto is amazing as is – why did you have to create an entirely new pesto recipe?

Well, the problem we were facing is that pine nuts can be expensive, plus they’re not the sort of ingredient we typically have in the pantry. We love pesto so much that we decided to recreate it with some of the more budget-friendly items we usually have lying around. This way, we can whip up a batch, even if we hadn’t gone out to buy the ingredients for it specifically.

This pesto recipe uses peanuts instead of pine nuts (so much cheaper!), and spinach instead of basil. The spinach provides an easy way to get your greens in, serving up healthy amounts of calcium, vitamins A & C, fiber, folate, magnesium, potassium, thiamin, to name just a few. The resulting combination is unique, delicious, and goes with just about anything. Best of all, this pesto is so easy to make, which is great because we can never get enough of it.

By the way, if
nutritional yeast is not a pantry staple in your house already, make it one now. It is so versatile and adds a delicious cheesy flavor to so many dishes! Plus it’s a got protein and fiber and is a great source of B vitamins.