Coriander (Cilantro) and Walnut Pesto

On Saturday I came home with a very large bunch of organic coriander from the farmers’ market – for sixty pence. Who says organics are too expensive? When you hunt around and work with the seasons organics need not be.

Faced with my bunch of coriander and a jar of walnuts this was what evolved. It’s exactly like a regular pesto in that it has ground nuts, oil and ground herbs and is a yummy paste to mix through something bland. It is quick to make and delicious over pasta, perhaps regular pasta or, better, wheat free pasta if you are new to all this. Or you might want to graduate to making raw ‘courgetti’ pasta from long thin strips of courgette ;-). Stir your pesto into your pasta and enjoy, ideally with a big salad.

The walnuts will taste far nicer and be much more easily digested if you soak them overnight or all day, ideally soaking, rinsing, soaking again for another hour or so and rinsing before use. they’ll lose the slightly unpleasant astringent taste that stored walnuts get and be restored from dormancy to a living state.

1 cup walnuts, soaked

1 cup of coriander – roughly chopped leaves and smaller stalks packed into the cup

1/2 cup good quality cold pressed olive oil

Juice of half a large lemon

A pinch of salt or a splash of tamari soy sauce to taste

Grind everything except the salt or tamari together in a food processor, or push it through a single auger juicer with the mincing nozzle. Grind it to as fine a paste as you wish and season lightly to taste.

Stir gently through the pasta, adding a little more oil if necessary to help it to ‘travel’ right through. Serves about 4