Family Gluten Free

It’s that time of year for me in New England. Time to save whatever is left of my garden before the frost gets it. This year, I had a pretty great basil plant that grew heartily and, unlike usual, I was able stay on top of flower bud plucking to keep the plant making delicious leaves. So what does one do with a bunch of basil? Make pesto of course!

In my blog, I have mentioned in several posts that I have made a personal choice to reduce the amount of dairy I eat. Mostly I just feel better when I don’t eat it and I find there are so many great, healthy, alternatives, I hardly miss it. Though I do have a little grass-fed butter or raw cheese on occasion. Traditionally pesto is prepared using Parmesan cheese. What I love about pesto is the nutty saltiness and it can be easily made without cheese. This recipe is also raw if you are into that sort of thing.

Basil

Dairy-free Raw Pesto

I purposely left the measurements of this recipe loosey goosey. For me, pesto is about grabbing handfuls, tossing everything in a blender, and adding olive oil until the whole thing comes together. Any ingredient can be decreased or increased to meet your desired taste. I promise that freshly made pesto in your kitchen beats the jarred stuff any day.

Frozen Pesto

Pesto is a fantastic way to add something extra or umami (my new favorite word) to any dish. I use it in anything from pasta sauce, as a condiment on sandwiches, meat marinade, on pizza, or even plain as a dip. A little can go a long way, so I usually just freeze it in ice cube trays and defrost as needed. I hope you enjoy it!

Dairy-Free Raw Pesto

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

Vegan, Paleo, Yields approx. 1 cup

Author: FamilyGlutenFree.com

Recipe type: Condiment

Ingredients

• Fresh basil (enough to loosely fill your food processor)
• 1 handful of raw pine nuts or raw walnuts
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt (generous amount, to taste)

Instructions

1. Add nuts, lemon juice and salt to food processor containing basil.
2. Turn on food processor.
3. Carefully drizzle olive oil, while running, until pesto comes together to desired consistency and the ingredients are well combined.
4. Taste pesto and add more salt if needed.

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Making my own salad dressing is not something that came easily to me.  Why should you make your own when you can just grab a bottle?  However, I started making my own salad dressing for three reasons.

1. Wheat products can lurk behind the scenes in many dressing brands.
2. The ingredients can be poor, even if it’s a vinaigrette.  Many dressing contain canola oil, refined sugar, and preservatives, among many other unrecognizable ingredients.
3. Nothing beats the taste of fresh made dressing, especially when you can customize the acid to oil ratio to your taste.

Most days, I have a giant salad for lunch, so I go through a ton of dressing.   Once I committed to making my own dressing for the above reasons, I made the dressing part of my salad creating routine.  I make it on the spot, pour it on and enjoy.  This routine led me to this salad dressing recipe.  It uses ingredients you can easily have on hand and it requires very little effort.  Also it is hard to argue with the quality of ingredients: unpasteurized unfiltered apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, lemon, whole-grain mustard and sea salt.  Sometimes I get inspired by all the cool balsamic vinegars out there, but I always come back to this recipe.

I am a big endorser of organic, raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized (with the ‘mother’) apple cider vinegar.  You can do a quick Google search to get an idea of its health benefits.  I also use it on my skin and hair, as well as for a household cleaner.  I know it’s not for everyone outside of salad dressing, but if you are interested, you should give it a try.  I use Bragg’s brand apple cider vinegar, which is available in most grocery stores (http://bragg.com/products/bragg-organic-apple-cider-vinegar.html).  Be sure the brand you use states “unpasteurized” and “with the mother”.

Also, if you haven’t tried whole grain mustard, you should.  Many salad dressing recipes I’ve tried, call for Dijon mustard.  I like it on my hotdog, but not my salad.  I was given a jar of whole grain mustard as a gift, gave it a try, and now I am hooked.  Whole grain mustard has a much milder taste and I like biting into the little mustard seeds.  You can find whole-grain mustard in the mustard section of any grocery store.  I usually get the honey mustard variety.

I hope you enjoy this dressing recipe and I hope you get inspired to make your own dressing at home.  Like I noted above, the great thing about making your own is customizing the taste.  I tend to like it on the extra acidic/salty side.  Feel free to use this recipe as a guide and then play around with the ratios.

Whole Grain Mustard and Apple Cider Vinegar Salad Dressing

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

Vegan, Paleo (1 Serving for a large salad)

Author: FamilyGlutenFree.com

Recipe type: Condiment

Ingredients

• Juice from ½ lemon
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp whole grain mustard
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. In a small bowl squeeze ½ lemon.
2. Add the apple cider vinegar and the mustard.
3. Add the extra virgin olive oil (instead of measuring, I usually eye it until it looks to be about ⅔ the content of the bowl).
4. Add salt.
5. Wisk until the oil and acids are incorporated to form an emulsion.
6. Pour on your salad and enjoy!

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