Ingredients
Units
Scale
PESTO:
- 1/2 cup tightly packed sun-dried tomatoes
- 2-3 chili peppers, halved & seeds removed (or keep them if you like the heat, I actually ended up adding only 1 to the pesto)
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2-4 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- enough brown rice pasta for however many people you're making this for
- 1 cup arugula for every 2 servings
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200C (392F).
- Add the sundried tomatoes into a big cup or a bowl and soak them in hot water for about 20 minutes to soften them. When soft, drain and rinse them.
- On the stove, toast the pine nuts in a pan over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes or until they're golden. Be careful not to burn them, you want them golden/brown, not black. It's okay if not all of them are toasted.
- Roast your chilis for 10 minutes. Then set aside, you'll add it to a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients.
- Put all the ingredients except the olive oil into the food processor (sundried tomatoes, roasted chili, toasted pine nuts, basil, garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast if using, and salt).
- Process until everything breaks down into rough pesto. You may need to scrape the sides a couple times.
- While the food processor is running, start pouring in the oil. I ended up adding 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp which made a thick pesto. Add 1/2 - 3/4 cup maybe even up to 1 cup to reach desired consistency.
- Store in the fridge for up to one week.
- Boil the pasta according to package instruction.
- Drain and rinse the pasta and put it back into the pot. Add the pesto (1-2 tbsp per person or until all the pasta is nicely thinly coated with pesto), stir to coat, then mix in the arugula and serve.
Notes
Arugula is perfect for this but if you don't have it, you can also use baby spinach.