How to Create Fabulous Fresh Herb Sauces or Pestos

It’s unbelievably easy to create fresh, healthy, and delicious herb sauces (pestos)! Just  select your favorite ingredients from the six or seven food categories shown in this diagram and throw it all in your food processor or high-speed blender! Get creative! Have fun! Enjoy!

HERBS and GREENS (fresh)

• Flat leaf parsley (Italian parsley)
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Tarragon fronds
• Oregano (Dried oregis good! In fact, I prefer dried oregano; it’s less overpowering.)
• Basil  or Thai basil
• Thyme
• Chives
• Green onions
• Mint
• Fennel fronds (green feathery tops of fennel)
• Arugula
• Spinach
• Watercress

LIQUIDS

Acidic Liquids

• Fresh lemon juice
• Fresh lime juice
• Fresh orange juice
• Vinegar

Not Acidic Liquids

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Avocado oil
• Coconut milk

THICKENERS

• Nuts (My favorites include: pine, walnuts, pistachios, cashews, pecans, macadamia)
• Avocado
• Hard-cooked egg yolks
• Cooked or canned (drained) artichoke hearts or bottoms
• Feta cheese
• Goat cheese
• Ricotta cheese

FLAVORINGS

Umami - (also known as the 5th taste) makes food taste richer, meatier, and more savory.

• Anchovies and anchovy paste
• Fish sauce
• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Tomato paste
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Marmite
• Vegemite
• Kimchi (made with Napa cabbage, also known as Chinese cabbage)
• Miso
• Olives
• Capers
• Parmesan cheese
• Seaweed fresh or dried (including the popular roasted seaweed snacks)
• Mushrooms, especially shiitake
• Green tea leaves (I haven’t tried adding green tea leaves in fresh herb sauces yet, yet but it might work!)

Other flavorings

• Garlic (fresh)
• Mustard (prepared or powder)
• Ginger (fresh)
• Turmeric (fresh or dried). [One of my favorite spices! To learn more, see the blog post: Why turmeric?]
• Shallots
• Preserved lemons
• Lemon zest (from organic lemons)
• Lime zest (from organic limes)
• Orange zest (from organic oranges)
• Salt – Try different varieties!

Spicy hot (optional)

• Cayenne pepper (ground)
• Red pepper flakes
• Aleppo pepper
• Black pepper (freshly ground)
• Paprika, including: Hungarian, hot, smoked
• Hot peppers, including: Serrano, jalapeño, Thai, etc.

FOOD SAFETY TIP –  Before you head to your kitchen, please read this Food Safety Tip!

When you combine garlic and oil, you create an environment in which botulism (a deadly food-born bacteria) can grow. According to the University of Colorado Extension Service, to prevent the possible growth of botulism when mixing oil and garlic, you should always “add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil.” Also you should “discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop.”

FREEZE what you don’t eat!

A great way to store extra fresh herb sauce (or for that matter, leftover portions of any liquid) is to freeze it in silicone muffin pans. For details, see the post, Silicone Muffin Pans – a Kitchen Staple – but not for baking!

CREATE and SHARE!

Here are the links to the fresh herb sauces / pestos found on this blog  - so far (more to come):

• Artichoke Lemon Pesto (Simple and pretty plain. Great to mix with other pestos.)
• Arugula Pesto (Very easy to make so if you are not sure which to start with, try Arugula Pesto)
• Cilantro Chutney (Indian)
• Charmoula (Moroccan)
• Basil Pesto(Italian)

I hope you have fun creating your own fresh herb sauces! And I would be very happy if you decided to share your creativity with us by posting a comment about your recipe!

Thanks!

Enjoy and be healthy,

~ Leni

Artichoke Lemon Pesto

This simple artichoke pesto is, honestly, pretty bland — and that’s a good thing! It means you can customize this pesto to your liking and add it to lots of foods. (At the end of this post, I have listed some of my favorite ways to use this pesto.)

Artichokes contain prebiotics. I tend to think of prebiotics as food for probiotics – the good bacteria in your gut. But it’s a little more complicated than that. According to the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP): “A prebiotic is a selectively fermented ingredient that results in specific changes in the composition and/or activity of the gastrointestinal microbiota, thus conferring benefit(s) upon host health. (Gibson et al. 2010. Food Science and Technology Bulletin: Functional Foods 7 (1) 1–19.)”

For credible scientific information about prebiotics and probiotics, see:

• Prebiotics: A Consumer Guide for Making Smart Choices 
• Probiotics: A Consumer Guide for Making Smart Choices 

INGREDIENTS

1, 12-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts, cooked according to package directions, drained
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
grated rind of one organic lemon
1 clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon of salt

DIRECTIONS

Place all of the ingredients into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until a smooth paste forms.

Store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Freeze what you will not use up in a week.

FOOD SAFETY TIP –  Before you head to your kitchen, please read this Food Safety Tip!

When you combine garlic and oil, you create an environment in which botulism (a deadly food-born bacteria) can grow. According to the University of Colorado Extension Service, to prevent the possible growth of botulism when mixing oil and garlic, you should always “add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil.” Also you should “discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop.”

FREEZE IT!

A great way to store extra fresh herb sauce is to freeze it in silicone muffin pans. For details, see the post, Silicone Muffin Pans – a Kitchen Staple – but not for baking!

OTHER FRESH HERB SAUCE  RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE

• Arugula Pesto - REALLY easy to make!
• Cilantro Chutney (Indian) – Everybody loves this one.
• Charmoula (Moroccan) – Totally amazing! Adds a lot of pop to the food!
• Basil Pesto(Italian) – A great standby.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH THIS ARTICHOKE LEMON PESTO? 

• Use this Artichoke Lemon Pesto recipe as a starter to make something even more flavorful

ARTICHOKE LEMON PESTO + grated Parmesan Cheese + chopped fresh flat leaf (Italian) Parsley .

• Improve any salad dressing

ARTICHOKE LEMON PESTO + your favorite Italian salad dressing.

• Create a delicious thick and creamy salad dressing

ARTICHOKE LEMON PESTO + fresh squeezed orange juice + dried oregano (fresh would be too overpowering) + fresh garlic (minced fine) + salt. Makes a great salad dressing. Try it on greens and top with pecan halves. Amazing! I served this dressing (without the garlic) at the lunch I made for my mom on her 89th birthday. She loved it! Personally I like this dressing with the garlic in it, but for those like my mom who don’t like garlic, it’s great without it too.

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Chopped Salad and Sardines

My lunch often consists of a large chopped salad and some canned sardines that have been rinsed with water and splashed with lemon juice (so no one at work can smell the sardines)! I love chopped fresh veggies, and I often prepare enough for a few days and store it in the refrigerator at work. Especially in the summer – but anytime of the year as well – I enjoy this healthy and low-carbohydrate lunch!

For more information on what I put into one of my favorite chopped salads and why I chose these veggies, see the short video/podcast that I did with my sister – who was kind enough to agree to participate without any notice at all. In fact, as soon as I called her on her cell phone to ask if she would work with me on this, she pulled over in her car and we did this video/podcast with her on her cell phone and me on my regular speakerphone.  So this video/podcast is totally unrehearsed, and yet I think it came out really well! I’m still amazed!

Since we did this podcast, I have come up with another idea I want to share with you. If you do not like sardines that much, you can get used to eating this very healthy fish, gradually. For example, you could bake a mild fish like Dover sole; let it cool; and then mix it in with the sardines. Over time, you can add more sardines and less sole. I made this half-half mixture and added LOTS of chopped fresh dill, and it was great!

Kitchen tips on how to do some of the things mentioned in the video:

Zest lemons or limes (and freeze the fresh juice in small quantities for use later)

One way to cut a ripe avocado into chunks and another way to cut a ripe avocado into chunks

Note: Wash the avocado before you cut into it!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

VEGETABLES FOR BREAKFAST: Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes

Why vegetables for breakfast?

Just about everyone in the field of nutrition and cancer today agrees that the anticancer diet is composed primarily of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains. Specifically, we’re told that we should have 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (and, I would add that at least five of those servings should be veggies). What I’ve found is that if I don’t have veggies at breakfast, it’s hard to have had five servings of vegetables in a day. But if I have some veggies for breakfast, it’s easy to have five or even six servings of veggies a day. And…furthermore, if veggies are good for you, it just makes sense that it’s good to give your body a veggie “infusion” all through the day – not just at dinner.

With a little pre-planning, having veggies for breakfast is easy – and delicious!

SAUTED HERB FLAVOR CUBES

I got the idea for this recipe from the Persian (Iranian) Kookoo Sabzi, a wonderful egg and herb omelet. While my recipe doesn’t contain eggs, it goes very well with eggs…and that’s the idea.

Ingredients

1 bunch green onions (scallions)

1/2  bunch fresh dill

1 bunch fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley

½ bunch fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, optional

• I have found that adding 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric (a potent anticancer spice) to this herb mixture doesn’t change the flavor, so I like to add the turmeric.

About 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black or white pepper, to taste

Food prep tips for food safety

Here’s how to get rid of the visible dirt and the invisible bacteria that’s in the dirt, including E. coli:

• Use two cutting boards — one for cutting the unwashed herbs and the other for slicing and chopping the rinsed herbs.
• Use two knives (chef’s knives work best) — one for cutting the unwashed herbs and the other for slicing and cutting the rinsed herbs — or just rinse your knife after you cut the unwashed herbs.

• Green onion – steps to cleaning properly
  

1. Trim off the root end of each green onion.
2. Cut the green onion in two, separating the green and white parts.
3. Thinly slice the green part of the green onion on the diagonal so as to expose as much surface area as reasonably possible. You will see dirt you never knew was there!
4. Place the sliced green onion into a large strainer with small holes (a metal mesh one works well) and place the strainer inside the basket of a salad spinner.
5. Now you are ready to give your green onions a good rinse. Here’s how: Fill the salad spinner up with cold tap water and using your hands agitate the herbs in the water. Then lift out the mesh strainer with the herbs in it and pour the dirty water out of the salad spinner.
6. Rinse one or two more times and pour off the dirty water after each rinse.
7. Place the lid on the salad spinner and spin dry the herbs in the mesh strainer. Note: Since a metal strainer is slightly heavy, you have to be careful when you spin the salad spinner or it will go out of control. To avoid having to be careful, I simply do the spinning in the corner of the sink (using the two sides of the sink to help keep the basket in place).
8. Now you have very clean and decently dried off sliced green onions!
9. Slice the white part of the green onion thinly, but not on a diagonal; it’s not necessary. Place the sliced white part into the mesh strainer inside the basket of the salad spinner, and spin dry.

• Bunches of Herbs — dill, parsley and cilantro
  

1. With the herbs still tied together in a bunch, use your knife to cut off the thick stems — all in one cut.
2. Set the stems aside for another use such as making soup stock.
3. Untie the herbs and place them into the plastic strainer basket inside the salad spinner.  Rinse and dry the herbs as explained above.
4. Chop the clean herbs.

Directions

Thinly slice the white and green parts of the green onion, keeping the white and green parts separate; set aside.

Chop the dill, including the tender stems; set aside.

Chop the parsley, including the tender stems; set aside.

Chop the cilantro, including the tender stems; set aside

• Place the less tender stems from the dill, parsley and cilantro in a plastic bag (the kind for the freezer) and freeze. Later you can use these stems and other vegetables when making a veggie soup stock.

Use a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan and cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Heat the oil over medium heat (or just a little hotter) and when the oil is hot add the white parts of the green onion and sauté until softened. Then add the green parts of the green onion and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the turmeric, if using, and mix it in. Then add all of the chopped herbs and sauté for about a minute or two. When the herbs are gently wilted but still nice and green, remove the pan from the heat.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let this herb mixture cool and then scoop it up by the spoonful (an ice cream scoop or a cookie dough scoop works well) and put it into a silicon mini muffin pan (or an ice cube tray). Note: Press down on the herb mixture to compact it.

Freeze your green muffins (flavor “cubes”) until hard.

Remove the muffin pan from the freezer and let it warm up for a minute or so at room temperature. Then just pop your Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes out of the muffin pan and place them into a plastic bag suitable for the freezer. Keep frozen until ready to use. Then just take out one, two or more cubes and heat them in the microwave until defrosted and just hot enough to serve.

Many ways to use Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes

• Spread on toasted bread, including sourdough bread;
• Serve with scrambled eggs, egg whites or sauted tofu for great flavor and color.
• Mix with Sun-Dried Tomato Flavor Cubes and spread on toast or serve with eggs as suggested above;
• Mix into hummus or any bean spread/dip;
• Mix with a little goat cheese and spread on crackers or stuff into hollowed out cherry tomatoes;
• Garnish a butternut squash soup with these sauted herbs;
• Mix with green beans or peas for a gourmet touch.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni