Lemony Kale Pesto takes homemade pesto to a healthier and tastier level. Superfood kale combines with the usual pesto suspects for a winning combination for your taste buds and your waist line! It’s a very versatile sauce that combines kale, basil, pine nuts, almonds or pecans (your choice), olive oil, parmesan cheese and lemon juice.
I don’t know about y’all but I can’t figure out why pine nuts are so crazy expensive!! I am NOT paying $10 for a little bag of those suckers!! I absolutely L-O-V-E pesto, but I refuse to make it with pine nuts!! Now, if your pocket-book is a little fuller than mine, then by all means, please make this recipe with pine nuts. It would probably taste a bit more like a traditional pesto, but this frugal gal isn’t going to do it. Especially since I live in south Georgia and there are pecan trees everywhere, including my yard, so I can get them for free!!! So I used pecans in this recipe, but almonds would work well too. I will leave that choice up to you 😉
My lemony kale pesto was inspired by Lindsay from Pinch of Yum’s pesto that she used in her Healthy Baked Pesto Rigatoni. Her recipe would obviously be a great way to try my lemony kale pesto 😉 I know I talk about Pinch of Yum a lot, but they are just doing everything right! So my blog crush (bordering on stalker-status) continues…
Here are some other options to use your lemony kale pesto (and BTW…I have another recipe coming up on the blog that is AWESOME…so stay tuned!)
- Jerk Rubbed Mahi with Yellow Pepper Pesto
- Pesto Baked Chicken & Green Bean Risotto
- Creamy Chicken Pesto Pasta
- Pesto Pizza with Chicken
Here is the recipe for Lemony Kale Pesto:
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 cups kale, packed
- 1 cup basil
- ½ cup pine nuts, almonds or pecans
- ½ cup parmesan cheese
- juice of one lemon
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.
- Place whole garlic cloves in the food processor by themselves. Pulse until they are chopped very finely. Scrap down the sides of the food processor.
- Add kale, basil , nuts, parmesan cheese and lemon juice to the food processor and process until smooth while streaming in the olive oil. You may have to stop and scrap down the sides of the food processor a couple of times to get a good consistency.
- Store in an air tight container or jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can also freeze it for up to 6 months and here is how to freeze pesto.
This. Looks. AMAZING! I am so making this! Pinned!