BASIL PESTO (raw vegan)

My earliest memory of a great tasting pesto was more than 20 years ago at an Italian restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. I remember being blown away by the taste and I bought a bottle of pesto from Carrefour only to be sorely disappointed. It didn’t taste anything like the one I had.

At that time I didn’t know I could make my own pesto. Internet was still on dial-up at that time and I didn’t even know I could log on to the world wide web to learn how to make pesto.

Fast forward to today and there’s an international online VEGAN cooking academy where you get to learn from native chefs. Wait, is that the correct term - native chefs? What I mean is that if you want to learn how to make authentic Italian food, you get to learn from Alberto who is a true Italian and has more than 30 years of experience in Italian cuisine at @veecoco_academy .

I chose to make one of the easiest recipes in the course - green basil pesto. Ehm, I omitted the garlic though (coz lots of my students and followers don’t eat garlic due to religious reasons) and instead substituted with some @organiculesuperfoods spirulina powder so you still get the depth of flavour and the benefits of the superfood as well.

This was so simple and yet so good. And there’s no need for dairy cheese in this pesto. As I’m putting my talk together for the @mit_bootcamp_alumni, there are overwhelming statistics on the negative impact of the dairy industry on our environment. Almost 900 gallons of water are needed for 1 pound of dairy cheese! (If you miss cheese🧀, get my eBook Fun with Vegan Cheese where you can easily make plant-based, non-dariy cheese at home. Click link here: https://gumroad.com/l/NlYnx)

Of course credit also goes to @thevegetable.co for supplying me with fresh, pesticide-free basil straight to my doorstep.💚

Yes, those are the mizuna microgreens from @greenpatchmalaysia. Not essential to this dish but they do look pretty and pack in lots of nutrients.