In my original recipe, I wanted to create a low-fat sauce that would stir easily into a velvety-smooth sweet potato soup. I chose to replace the traditional high-fat pesto ingredients of nuts and oil with 1/2 cup of soft tofu rather than beans. The result was a thinner, smoother sauce with all the flavour of pesto (and considerably less fat) that stirred easily into the Velvety Sweet Potato Soup (with Pesto Swirl).
Today's version is slightly richer as I added a small amount of sunflower seeds to thicken it up a bit. You can substitute the sunflower seeds with walnuts, pine nuts, or avocado, or leave them out entirely, if desired. It's great either way!
makes 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups
150 grams (1/2 cup) soft tofu
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (optional)
1 clove garlic
zest and juice of 1 lemon (about 1/3 cup)
1 Tablespoon gluten-free tamari
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
1 packed cup fresh parsley, leaves and tender stems
1 packed cup fresh basil, leaves and tender stems
makes 6-8 servings
1 recipe pesto sauce
1-454 g (1 pound) package gluten-free pasta
1-398 ml (14 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1-398 ml (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and quartered
2 stalks celery, sliced
20 cherry tomatoes, quartered
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce and the rest of the salad ingredients.
To your health and happiness,
Beans and Rice