You don't need expensive basil, pine nuts, or even cheese to make delicious pesto! The essentials for a good pesto are greens of some kind, nuts of some kind, garlic, and lemon juice. This recipe uses arugula, but you can use whatever you've got.
3/4cupchopped nutse.g. pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pecans, macadamia nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.
1tbsplemon juiceor lime juice
1/4cupolive oilor other neutral flavored vegetable oil such as canola, avocado, or grapeseed
2garlic cloves3 for a punchier pesto
1/2tspsea saltmore to taste
Instructions
Add everything except the olive oil into a food processor. Pulse until everything is finely-chopped.
With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil slowly until the mixture is combined. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. If the pesto is too thick, thin it out with a tablespoon or two of olive oil or water.
Taste and season with sea salt and black pepper until the flavors shine. You can also reserve a few tablespoons of nuts to add in at the end for a chunkier pesto.
Notes
Feel free to swap the arugula for basil, parsley, kale, mint, cilantro, chervil, arugula, dandelion greens, broccoli, broccoli rabe, collards, mustard greens, radish tops, carrot tops, garlic scapes, beet greens, spinach, watercress, pea shoots, or any greens you've got on hand!