Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Inspired by this post by The Voracious Vegan i attempted to make make my own sun dried tomato pesto. Plus basil was getting riddiculously big and sprawling all over the kitchen table so was in need of a major haircut (is it wrong to think of my basil plant and refer to him like a person?).

I've tried my hand at pesto before but having to omit the cheese (i had yet to discover vegan parmesan) and the nuts meant that it ended up being pretty bland and textureless. It was also way too oily. So to give it a bit of texture this time  i decided to use chickpeas and i'm so pleased that they worked perfectly! I liked this exactly the way it was and din't even bother adding any vegan parmesan. I also cut down on the oil so it was nice and thick just the way i like it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh basil (packed and overflowing)
• 1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes
• 1/3 cup of oil (i used the oil the sd tomatoes came in)
• 1/4 cup of chickpeas (i used canned ones)
• garlic puree to taste (i didn't measure but i like a lot of garlic)
• generous splash of lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Mix the basil, tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice and chickpeas in the blender, whilst gradually adding the oil. I like my pesto kinda chunky so i didn't process it much. Add a pinch of salt to taste, and more garlic or lemon juice if needed.



For a quick and easy dinner i boiled up some linguine, added a nice crunchy yellow pepper and stirred some of the pesto through it. I had it with some grilled aubergine antipasto from Tesco.

The rest of the pesto went into a jar, covered with a little bit of oil, and into the fridge for another night. It was so tangy and flavoursome that i shouldn't have bothered with the oil as it didn't last long enough to have the chance to dry out on top! Some of it became lunch the following day, spread generously on toast and topped with a chopped tomato and some more fresh basil.