basil pesto with almonds and flax seeds ...........

Pasta is a great way to indulge yourself with a warm pleasant meal , and if you grow fresh basil in your garden , the basil pesto is a great sauce to go with your spaghetti..........


And if you want to make your basil pesto more nutritious you can always tuck in at least one ingredient which can be masked by the fresh aromas of basil and tingling taste of garlic and Parmesan..........basil pesto or any kind of green pesto or even chutney is always a matter of personal preference and we adjust and tweak the ingredients to our liking and that is great ...... any recipe which allows flexibility is great....isn't it ??

Adding flax seeds or flax seed meal to the pesto does not hamper with the taste much as fresh basil and garlic are packed with flavors and the parmesan , nuts and olive oil make the basil pesto multi dimentional on your palate. flax seeds have a different earthy kind of nuttiness and when ground wet it lends a thickness and smoothness to the pesto . Yes you can make out the taste when you use the quantity like i used but it is good .

Just remember fresh basil is must , i use walnuts or almonds instead of pine nuts just because pine nuts are maddeningly costly here . Indian small cloves of garlic are more pungent with flavor so keep that in mind if you are here in India , i love garlic so it's great for me.


ingredients...

fresh basil leaves 2 cups ( i used about 1.5 cup and that's why the pesto is not as green as it should be )
grated parmesan cheese 1/2 cup
extra virgin olive oil 1/3 cup
almonds 1/3 cup
flax seeds or flax seeds meal 1/3 cup
garlic cloves 6-7 or to taste
black pepper 1 tsp
whole dry red chillies 2 nos. ( optional , it's not used in authentic version )
salt to taste

procedure... 

 Just whiz everything together in your mixie , preferably the chutny jar . Flax seeds absorb water and you may need about 1/4 cup of water while grinding . keep the texture to your liking ...smooth or gritty .... mine is a bit gritty and this is how i like it.

Use of red chillies makes it hot and i love it this way , you can give red chilly a chance with your green pesto if you like your pasta a bit hot.

This pesto keeps in the fridge for a couple of days and if you grind it without cheese it can be frozen for longer period of time. Any kind of pasta will be good as long as it is cooked perfectly for the soft glutinous bite....


We loved this pesto and even Arvind who often complaints the healthy ingredients for 'tasting healthy' too , was happy with this pesto . No complaints when it is pasta anyway ........ including the healthier ingredients in combination with more flavorful recipes is a key factor , especially when you are trying to feed flax seeds to the kids ..... what do you think ??

You will never look down upon pasta for being a carb food , if you use whole wheat pasta and if you try n make it more healthy ..........yummy things aren't always bad for your tummy....


The sad looking basil inflorescence on the side of the dish is to tell that my basil plants are getting hurt ( yes , physically hurt ) by the torrential downpour in Delhi these days .........this is a month old picture and now all the leaves from the basil plants have gone .....new leaves will sprout only when the rains stop ..........what has happened to the clouds ??

Comments

  1. Pesto is my favorite sauce among all...adding flax makes it more healthy..in or der to retain the green color I add green chillies as even I like it hot...and I add bit to lemon juice so that it retains it bright green color..

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  2. Thanks Pratibha ..
    sometimes i add lemon juice too but this time i had less basil leaves n hence it wasn't green enough ..... somehow i am partial to red chillies :)

    As i said pesto is very very flexible to adjust to our peculiar taste buds...:)

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  3. Looks awesome and it's a delicious looking dish.

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  4. What a great pesto recipe. I love pesto so, for me, it is a keeper :)

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  5. ya i knw its raining a lotz there,..:-(
    pasta looks healthy

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  6. "yummy things aren't always bad for your tummy"
    I needed this reassurance :)

    Will surely try this trick to feed flax seed to kids...

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  7. Quite amazing how you packed all that goodness together. Yes.. carbs in pasta are scary but good that its whole wheat you went for.

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  8. looks tempting. I didnt know what are basil & flaxseeds.. You made me search it out :-)

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  9. Thanks everybody for your encouraging comments .

    @ Nostalgia ... carbs are not scary at all if we just take care of the portion size n off course i fit not refined.

    @ Devasena ... i am happy that i could make you search for healthy ingredients , the ones which are easily available to us n still are neglected.

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  10. Hi Sangeeta,
    Nice meeting you. You create wonderful deshi videshi dishes!Love it!
    Pasta with pesto is one of my favorite and you make it more delicious!
    Keep in touch!
    Love Always.

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  11. delicious...Pasta, any time for me.....me too love to throw some flax seed powder in every dish I make....no harm to make food little more healthy...hope u guys are getting some relief from rain as I heard it's stopped from last couple of days...

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  12. Thanks Spice... Rains are a bit under control though there is forecast for more rains..
    Dengue has scared everybody after the dreaded rains n that is more disturbing now.

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