For the past several months I’ve been making pesto fervently, I’d never made pesto before – I don’t remember exactly what brought it on, it must have been something I saw or read.
All I remember is that I made pesto one day, and saw how delicious and superior it was to the store-bought variety, and how easy it is to make, I literally kicked myself for waiting this long to try it.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my passion for making my own pesto came during the winter, a season when basil (the main ingredient in traditional pesto) isn’t available.
After discovering that the expensive basil I bought in December wasn’t so fresh, I looked at alternatives for making pesto.
Although technically it wouldn’t be pesto, it was still delicious.
My favourite has been this carrot pesto, I wavered making this – let’s face it, a carrot isn’t a leaf and it most certainly isn’t green, while traditionally pesto is made with green leaves.

The beauty of making your own pesto is that you can pretty much throw anything in there (within reason)

Here are some general guidelines for making this pesto – you’d need;

Carrots (or basil, parsley, arugula, broccoli or beets)
Sundried Tomatoes (optional or whatevs)
Parmesan Cheese (eww cheese… but whatevs)
Nuts (toasted pine, almond, walnuts etc – knock yourself out)
Garlic
Olive Oil
Pepper Flakes (or not)
Salt

Toss everything in a food processor and blitz away until it reaches your desired level smoothness, this pesto comes out a little chunky because of the carrots.

This pesto also keeps very well, I ended up with much more than I intended to make – I stored a bottle in the freezer for up to a month.
It’s nice to have pesto on hand for whenever…

Like this sprouted wheat pasta with peas, sundried tomatoes and carrot pesto – yum!