Easy Avocado Lemon Basil Pesto

Loaded with flavor, this creamy pesto made from avocado, basil, thyme, oregano and lemon is meant to be served over pasta. I could just eat it with a spoon!

My friend Kathy Hester of Healthy Slow Cooking has another cookbook on the shelves and I’m delighted to say that I have a copy to give away! This one’s called The Easy Vegan Cookbook (<Amazon affiliate link) and it’s perfect for folks who are short on time but don’t want to skimp on flavor. Typical of Kathy’s books, there aren’t a bunch of weird substitutions for non-vegan ingredients, just great tasting vegetable-centric meals. And who couldn’t use more of those in their diets?

Make sure to scroll to the bottom and leave a comment to enter the cookbook giveaway!

As I mentioned in my Muffin Monday post earlier this week, my younger daughter has been with us all summer. She’s been a good sport about being flexible about what she’ll eat because she is mostly vegetarian, making the rare exception for a good hamburger once in a while. “All hamburgers are good hamburgers” is another of her axioms. But we have eaten more all veggie meals while she’s been here, especially on days when her father is traveling on business. One of her own specialties is pasta with pesto to which an avocado is added just before serving so I knew that Kathy’s Avocado Lemon Basil Pesto would be a hit.

And how! This stuff is good. So good that I just wanted to eat it with a spoon and forget the pasta. But that wouldn’t be much of a meal so I restrained myself and tossed the noodles in it. Still divine - creamy, luscious, bright and beautifully green. We will definitely be making this one again!

Kathy’s instructions say not to let the specialty basil intimidate you. “If you don’t have lemon basil, you can use regular basil and add lemon zest, extra lemon juice or another lemony herb like lemon verbena or lemon balm.”

I couldn’t find lemon basil. Instead I used lemon thyme, adding a few extra sprigs, but I also added the lemon zest along with a little more lemon juice, as suggested.

Recipe ©Kathy Hester from The Easy Vegan Cookbook, included here by permission from Page Street Publishing.

Ingredients
1 medium-sized ripe avocado
1/2 cup (12g) fresh lemon basil leaves (or substitute regular basil)
1 (2 to 4 in [5 to 10cm]) sprig fresh thyme
1 tablespoon (3g) fresh oregano leaves
1 tablespoon (15ml) lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1/4 cup (59 ml) water plus more if needed
1/2 lb (227 g) cooked whole-wheat angel-hair pasta (I used regular linguine pasta.)

My optional addition: dried red chili flakes

Method
Scoop out the avocado.

Put the avocado flesh, basil, leaves from the thyme and oregano, lemon juice, salt and water in a blender and blend well until the herbs are puréed.

(I used my hand blender instead, pureeing the avocado with the lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, thyme and oregano first.)

(Then I added in the basil and pulsed again until smooth.)

(I completely forgot the water but we liked the thickness of the pesto and it coated the pasta beautifully! Just look at that gorgeous color!)

The creamy avocado lemon basil pesto with just a couple of teaspoons missing! Sooooooo good!

If the purée is still too thick, add 2 more tablespoons (30 ml) of water and blend again. Toss with the cooked pasta.

One more tip: This pesto comes together in minutes, so put your pasta in the boiling water while you make it. The pesto will be ready to toss with your piping hot, perfectly cooked pasta. You’ll be out of the kitchen before the pesto has time to get too hot!

If you’d like a sneak peek at some of Kathy’s other recipes, check out the links in this line up from some other participants in the cookbook blog tour. Good stuff! Make sure to scroll to the bottom and leave a comment to enter the cookbook giveaway! I've been wanting to try the Creole Okra Corn Soup but I couldn't get any takers at my house for anything okra. So I'm just going to have to make that when I'm home alone. Not a problem because I am sure I can eat the whole pot.

• Asian Corn Cabbage Soup from JL Goes Vegan
• Carrot Dogs from An Unrefined Vegan
• Creole Okra Corn Soup from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
• One Pot Veggie Vodka Sauce from Vegan Richa
• Zucchini Buckwheat Pancakes from The Veggie Queen
• Cauliflower Po' Boy from Vegan in the Freezer
• Veggie Quinoa Drop Biscuits from We’re Parents!?
• Veggie Potpie Pasta from Bake and Destroy
• Sweet Potato Spice Frozen Latte from A Dash of Compassion

Many thanks to Page Street Publishing for generously donating one copy of Kathy's wonderful book for this giveaway. Please be aware that they will only ship to US or Canadian addresses. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Please leave a comment and tell me why YOU should be the winner of this great cookbook full of delicious recipes - Are you cooking for yourself or for friends and family? - then click on the rafflecopter for other opportunities to enter. Not leaving a comment will disqualify your other entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received one copy of The Easy Vegan Cookbook for review purposes. No other compensation was received. This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins #MuffinMonday

No nuts, no extraneous ingredients. Just some rich chocolate muffins with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Because my baby is leaving on Sunday and I’m going to miss her.

Everybody loves plain things. Or so says my younger daughter. That doesn’t mean she’s not an adventurous eater or unwilling to try new things. But, on the whole, she’d rather if you didn’t add raisins or nuts to her baked goods, thankyouverymuch.

I’ve been blessed to spend this summer with her, while she waits for a visa that will allow her to live and work in the United Kingdom. We’ve filled out forms, amassed documents and the packet has now come back twice because they want something else that wasn’t asked for initially or want us to send it somewhere other than where we were first told to ship it. I’m sure that many governments have this issue where the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing, so I am not singling out the British here, but I wish they could all get their acts together!

Meanwhile, I have enjoyed having her at home since her graduation from RISD in June. I've even put her to work, designing our new Muffin Monday badge. And I finally got the needlework she made for my fiftieth birthday framed! Only took me two years.

A quote from the fabulous Julia Child.

She’ll be heading back the States now to look for gainful employment (Send any interesting offers for entry level jobs in textiles her way, please!) while she continues to wait for official word from the UK.

This plain, but delicious muffin is for you, sweet thing. Thanks for your patience, your sense of humor and your good company this summer. I’m going to miss you!

Ingredients
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
1/2 cup or 40g dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Special Dark.)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup or 80ml canola or other light oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup or 150g semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup or 50g for sprinkling on before baking

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

Add the two teaspoons of vinegar to the milk in a measuring cup. Stir and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and vanilla, along with the slightly curdled looking milk/vinegar mixture.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, until just combined. There may still be some flour showing and that’s fine.

Fold in the larger pile of chocolate chips.

Use a scoop or large spoon to fill the prepared muffin cups. They are going to be pretty full.

Sprinkle the tops with the remaining chocolate chips.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine took only 20 minutes. You do not want to over bake these and dry them out.

Put the muffin pan on a wire rack to cool for about five minutes.

Remove the muffins from the pan and continue to cool on the wire rack. You can eat these warm but be prepared to lick melted chocolate chips off of your fingers.

Enjoy!

I’m delighted today to have eight additional delicious muffins to share with you! Many thanks to all my muffin baking friends!

• Apple Oatmeal and Goat Cheese Muffins from The Spiced Life
• Apple Oatmeal, A Whole Grain Muffin from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Apple Zucchini Muffins from Love and Confections
• Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Cornbread Bacon Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Peach and Pumpkin Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins from Making Miracles
• Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins from Kelli's Kitchen
• Pumpkin Spice Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Cauliflower Leek Roquefort Tart #FridayPieDay

Cauliflower and leeks, gently sautéed in butter, are the perfect accompaniment to the tangy, sharp Roquefort and the fragrant green onions in this savory Cauliflower Leek Roquefort Tart.

 

When it a quiche a tart? Ah, good question. I’ve decided that it must be when the chef is English instead of French. I’m joking but perhaps there is a little truth to it. A couple of months ago I shared a recipe for a cheese, shallot and potato pie that I had adapted from the wonderful cookbook, The Good Cook* by Simon Hopkinson.

That same week, while I was enjoying the company and hospitality of generous friends in France, I made this tart as well, adapted from that same cookbook. As I read the recipe, I exclaimed, “but this sounds just like quiche!” And I felt the same way when it came out of the oven. Whatever you want to call it, it’s delicious.

The creamy filling and the mild vegetables are perked up considerably by the sharp and tangy Roquefort. And you can’t beat a flaky crust! I used my normal shortcrust recipe, found here, with all butter since Crisco isn’t to be found in France, but this olive oil pastry recipe would work just as nicely.

Ingredients
Pastry dough for one bottom pie crust (homemade - see links above - or store-bought)
2 tablespoons butter
2 large leeks (about 1 lb or 450g, whole or 7 1/2 oz or 240g, trimmed)
1/2 medium cauliflower (about 9 1/2 oz or 270g, trimmed)
Sea salt
2 egg yolks
2 eggs
2/3 cup or 150ml heavy whipping or double cream
1/2 cup or 115ml crème fraîche (or substitute sour cream or plain thick Greek yogurt)
Black pepper
Small bunch green onion tops
8 3/4 oz or 250g Roquefort

Method
Make your pie crust dough (see choice of recipe links in last paragraph above or use your own) and set in the refrigerator to rest, covered well in cling film.

Trim the hard green parts off the leeks – these can be used in making vegetable stock, if you are so inclined – and rinse the white/pale green parts with ample running water, making sure to get all the dirt out from between the layers.

Slice the leeks thinly.

Trim off the leaves and the hardest part of the cauliflower stem. Slice the cauliflower thinly.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the leeks and cauliflower with a sprinkle of sea salt, until they are soft and any liquid that comes out has evaporated again. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Place a flat baking pan in the oven. Line your tart pan (approximately 11 in x 2 in deep or 28cm x 4cm deep) with baking parchment.

Roll out your pastry as thinly as possible and fit it into the lined tart pan. Fill it with baking beads or dried beans or chickpeas and blind bake it for 15-20 minutes on top the preheated flat baking pan.

Remove the parchment and beads/beans then return the tart shell to the oven to bake for another 10 minutes.

Chop your green onions finely.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk the yolks and eggs with the cream, crème fraîche with a few good grinds of fresh black pepper. Add in the chopped green onions and mix well.

Pile the leeks and cauliflower into the baked tart shell and spread them around evenly.

Cut your Roquefort into cubes and scatter them all over the vegetables.

Pour the cream/egg mixture over the cheese. (If you are concerned about getting the full tart into the oven without spilling, pour 2/3 of the mixture in to the tart shell and slide it into the oven. Then pour the rest in.)

Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until puffy and golden.

Allow the tart to cool for at least 15- 20 minutes before trying to slice it. This savory tart is just as delicious at room temperature as it is warm. I daresay I'd have eaten it cold as well, but by the next day, there wasn't any left.

Enjoy!

This is my contribution to FridayPieDay!

FridayPieDay is the brilliant invention of Heather from girlichef and I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

This month Heather baked something that is a favorite at our house, beef and beer pie! In fact, almost every time we go out for a pub lunch, my husband orders some version of beef and beer pie. Heather's looks wonderful!

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!


*Amazon affiliate link. If you purchase the book after following my link, I earn some pennies, at no extra cost to you.

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