(Almost) green eggs without ham

[magid]

This morning, far later than I should've, I made a batch of rather chunky vegan basil-walnut pesto. I had a lot of basil; I ended up with a soupbowl full of pesto (along with frustration that my blender doesn't handle larger quantities of basil efficiently).

This afternoon, I decided to make green eggs. More precisely, devilled eggs with pesto mixed into the yolks instead of mayo. They taste just fine, though they're not quite as green as I'd imagined.

There's quite a lot of pesto left for experimenting with... Suggestions welcome.

Though anything not used by Sunday is likely to end up in the freezer, in individual packets, for bringing fresh basil taste into my winter kitchen.

Comments

[poetgeek.livejournal.com]

Pesto freezes well (leave out the butter [!], olive oil, and cheese, defrost when needed, and add in required quantities) in ice cube trays.

Makes for easy measuring.

Now I need to find a local source of basil and make pesto (w/ pine nuts, but I'll have to try walnut now too - thanks!).

[poetgeek.livejournal.com]

I guess I should have said "mashed up basil and oil" freezes well.

(Then you can add whatever other ingredients (cheese or not, etc) at the time of eating. This mostly saves washing the cuisinart when you're just hungry for a basil snack. Frozen pesto cubes can be thawed easily after being placed in a small plastic bag (tied) and dropped in a bowl of hot water. Unsure if it'll actually defrost and not turn odd in the roentgen oven.)

[poetgeek.livejournal.com]

(AND it's _great_ in omelets....)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't yet have a cuisinart, actually... Someday, perhaps, if I can figure out where to fit one in the kitchen. (And if I do find some extra space, the question becomes whether to splurge on a cuisinart, or a toaster, or a waffle iron, or some other lovely kitchen item. So many kitchen things, so little space...)

And what's a roentgen oven? A microwave? If so, I've successfully defrosted many things on low setting in mine, and I think pesto was one of them, though I'm not positive.

[magid.livejournal.com]

So far, I've had good luck with making pesto without cheese and freezing that already made, though in individual packets rather than ice cube trays. They defrost just fine in the fridge, or tossed directly in a pot of pasta...

See Hauntmeister's comment below for other things to make pesto with. I suspect pecans would also work well, if they're affordable. Oh, and though I haven't tried it, I've heard that using other fresh leafy herbs works for pesto-variants, too (parsley and cilantro come to mind first, neither of them favorites of mine, unfortunately).

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Mmm...vegan pesto, But then you have to go and mix it with eggs!

Ahh, I'll forgive you if you give me some of the egggless pesto. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

There's quite a lot of the unadulterated pesto left.

Cookie narration?

[cnoocy]

I've had good luck using pesto as a topping for sandwiches, especially faux-chicken burgers. I add cheese, but then, I'm a carnivore.

[magid.livejournal.com]

When I first made pesto, the blender I had was pareve, not used for dairy. Now it's a dairy blender, but I have enough vegan friends that I figured adding cheese when I want cheese in it gives me a bit more flexibility.

I never thought of pesto as a sandwich topping. I shall have to try it (and I'd certainly never thought of it with faux-chicken burgers, since I'm unsure what they are: burgers faux because of their chickenness, or burgers made of faux-chicken (perhaps some soy or gluten product?)?). I suppose it's far too predictable that I'd first think of tomato sandwiches.

[cnoocy]

Actually, I put the cheese on top as a slice. (I'm not really all that much of a cook.) The faux-chicken burgers in this case are grilled Chickenesque Burgers from Trader Joe's. I think they're vegan, but I'm not absolutely sure.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...pesto wine?

[magid.livejournal.com]

First thought: ugh.
Second thought: a large amount for pesto is not nearly a large enough amount for to make wine with.
Third thought: does that really sound good to your mental mouth?
Really?

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

(1) It was worth the thought, but thoughts don't have to translate to action.
(2) You can make wine out of almost any amount of anything. I'm sure you would only want a small amount of pesto.
(3) No. But I've seen recipes for good garlic cooking wines, and I'm sure basil would make a very nice wine.

Pesto wine

[magid.livejournal.com]

(Though I wanted to write a drunkard magician's line "Presto, wine!")

I suppose you can make wine out of anything.... In my head, I can imagine using wine and pesto in one dish, but not having them be the same thing, as it were.
I suppose I'm just limited.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Pesto works really really well with salmon, either as a condiment (kinda like cranberry sauce with turkey) or as a filling for rolled salmon fillets.

I've got twelve basil plants this year, double last year's number, and I anticipate making a very large number of pesto cubes! I've used a variety of nuts. Pine nuts being the most classic, but also walnuts (didn't like 'em that much), sunflower seeds (pretty good), and even dry-roasted cashews, salt and all. Yum!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Pesto with salmon does sound lovely. Perhaps roasted with, too?

I don't like walnuts as much as pine nuts, but it was worth the experiment. I'd heard of using sunflower seeds, but not cashews (and I'd certainly not think of using salted ones!). Have you tried pecans? I'd think their texture would work pretty well. Oh, and if you were feeling beyond decadent: I wonder what a pesto with macadamias would taste like?