I’ve made Paleo-friendly pesto a couple of times now, and I started out with this recipe. I made some changes to the recipe in order to make it even more paleo-friendly and creamy. I substitute parmesan cheese with ½ of an avocado.
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh chopped basil leaves
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
3 garlic cloves
½ avocado diced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 zucchini
5-7 frozen shrimp
Red pepper (Cayenne)
Coconut oil or olive oil
1/2 lemon
Directions:
Pesto Sauce
1. Put chopped basil, pine nuts, and garlic into a blender or food processor and mix. I used a blender and I had no problems.
2. Add olive oil and avocado. Blend again until creamy.
3. Add salt and pepper as needed.
It doesn’t get much simpler than this!
Zucchini
1. Rinse zucchini, then slice long ways and then cut into spaghetti-like strips.
2. Put in microwave-safe dish and microwave for 1 minute. Zucchini should be soft.
One very important aspect of paleo eating is having enough food on hang to cook a healthy meal on any given day. One of my favorite food items to keep handy is frozen shrimp.
Shrimp
1. Put frozen shrimp in pan and heat until de-thawed.
2. Strain the shrimp and rinse the pan.
3. Add coconut oil or olive oil, enough to grease the pan. Squeeze in lemon and add shrimp back in.
4. Cook on medium heat. Season with cayenne pepper.
Combine all three and voila! A great paleo-friendly dish. This recipe will make enough pesto to have leftovers. I recommend making the zucchini and shrimp on an as-needed basis since it is very simple to make when you already have your pesto handy, but you can certainly make more and have leftovers as well!
I’ll leave you with a great tip from Paleo Diet Lifestyle:
“Ice cube trays make a good vessel to freeze the finished pesto. Simply pour the pesto in the small cubes and freeze. When making a recipe with pesto, thaw a couple of cubes and you’ve got your pesto.”
[addtoany] Yum