Classic Basil Pesto Sauce

This post covers how to make pesto sauce, how to store it, and more! If you’ve never made homemade pesto before, you’ve been missing out!

This a perfect summer recipe to use up all that basil in the garden! I swear basil multiplies overnight. I can’t keep ahead of it, but homemade pesto is one of my favorite ways to use it up!

Homemade Basil Pesto Sauce Recipe

I don’t know why, but I had never had pesto until college. At least I’m pretty sure I hadn’t. And I honestly don’t even remember who made it when I did finally have it. All I remember was that it was a basic pesto pasta and I loved it.

I’ll be the first to admit that I ate waaaaaay more than I should have. It was slightly nutty, cheesy, and super fresh. Could there be a better combo? We use pesto all the time now and we even make it a few different ways depending on how much of everything we have like our 15-Minute Pesto Pasta, pesto butter grilled cheese, creamy pesto chicken pizza,  or the bacon pesto grilled cheese sandwich contest I won with Tillamook. However, in the end this is our ultimate, absolute favorite classic pesto recipe.

A classic pesto recipe is easy enough to make, but storing is a bit tricky. I have two ways that I store it and a third that I’ve heard great things about but never tried it. But we can talk about storing it after we discuss the actual classic pesto recipe.

Basil Pesto Recipe Ingredients

This is such an easy pesto recipe! It requires minimal ingredients to whip up. Here’s what all goes into this homemade pesto sauce:

• Fresh Basil
• Garlic Cloves
• Pine Nuts
  • NOTE: The best substitutes for pine nuts are walnuts, almonds or cashews.
• Olive Oil
• Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • NOTE: The best substitute is pecorino romano cheese.
• Salt

The measurements for each can be found in the recipe card below.

How to Make Pesto Sauce

To start this homemade pesto recipe, I just heat up a skillet over medium heat, add both the garlic cloves and the pine nuts and let it cook until golden, shaking the pan occasionally. Then, I remove the nuts and allow the garlic to finish turning golden as well.

An added bonus is that the garlic slides right out of its skin when it’s toasted this way. I love that. So, yes you read right, toast the garlic in its thin skin and then remove after it’s golden.

Place everything except the cheese and salt in the bowl of a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Stir in the cheese and add salt to taste. Yes, making this classic pesto recipe is that easy. If you want to go totally authentic, you can use a mortar and pestle to blend the pesto together.

5 Minute Avocado Salad

This avocado salad is bright and fresh and only takes 5 short minutes to make! Creamy avocados topped with a simple tangy dressing, toasted pine nuts and chunks of manchego cheese. It’s just a lovely salad!

Avocado is one of my love languages. They are pretty much the best little fruit ever. I mean, how many foods out there can you eat for any and every meal? They are healthy and satisfying. They are beautiful and so creamy. Throw them on some toast, mash them into guacamole, add them to a taco, wrap them with bacon, blend them into a dressing, or in this case, make them the base of a salad. Winning, winning, winning!

Ingredients for Avocado Salad

I love coming up with new salad recipes and this one is a little out of the box (i.e. I didn’t find another salad quite like it out there on the interwebs) but it seriously just works! All you need is a few avocados, a couple of simple ingredients for a zesty dressing and a few fun add-ins that just make dish come alive! Here is what you will need:

• Avocados: you’ll want ripe hass avocados, see my section below on how to pick ripe avocados
• Lime Juice: fresh is best, like by far the best
• White Wine Vinegar: combined with the lime juice, this is just the acid you want to balance out of the creamy richness of the avos
• Manchego Cheese: a semi-hard Spanish cheese made from sheep’s milk that is buttery in texture and similar in flavor to pecorino romano
• Pine Nuts: toasting the pine nuts gives them a little crunch and enhances their flavor
• Salt: adds and enhances flavors
• Cilantro: adds a fresh herby pop of flavor and is my favorite herb to pair with avocados

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Possible Substitutions:

Ok, I realize that some of these might not be common ingredients to have on hand, so here are some possible substitutes, but I highly recommend hitting the grocery store and trying the original recipe.

Avocados – no substitutes here because nothing can replace the heaven of an avocado

Lime Juice – you could try lemon juice, but lime and avocado just belong together

White Wine Vinegar – try red wine vinegar or rice vinegar (not seasoned)

Manchego – pecorino romano, asiago or monterey jack are ok substitutes

Pine Nuts – pistachios, toasted almonds or chopped cashews

How to Pick a Ripe Avocado

There are few things better than a perfectly ripe avocado and there are few things worse than an over- or underripe avocado! To pick a r

Easy Spring Salad [+Video]

This is an easy spring salad full of seasonal ingredients like asparagus, radishes, peas, fresh herbs and enhanced with roasted chickpeas, feta cheese, toasted pine nuts, and hard boiled eggs all topped with a bright and tangy lemon salad dressing.

Well, we did it again! We survived winter! And boy was it a doozy here in Utah this year. I have never seen so much snow here and we have lived here a really long time. So the fact that a “spring” salad is even a possibility brings a smile to my face! It is time for bright refreshing flavors and warmer temperatures!

What Goes in a Spring Salad?

One of the beauties of a salad is that they are so versatile, so I’m going to share the ingredients for how we like to make this salad, but keep in mind that you can omit or add ingredients to your liking. Here is what we like…

Dressing

• Olive Oil: the base of the dressing
• Dijon Mustard: adds intense mustard flavor
• Lemon Juice and Zest: adds a bright pop of freshness and acidity
• Shallot: adds mild onion flavor
• Champagne Vinegar: if you can’t find champagne vinegar, you can use prosecco or white wine vinegar
• Salt and Pepper: adds flavor

Salad

• Pine Nuts: adds texture and we toast them for maximum flavor
• Asparagus: remove the tough stem end and then cut it into 1-2″ pieces
• Frozen Peas: let them defrost in a bowl of water
• Baby Salad Greens: this can be any mix of greens you enjoy…romaine, spinach, arugula, chard, etc.
• Radishes: adds a little heat and gorgeous color
• Cucumber: we prefer an English cucumber
• Fresh Herbs: mint, basil, parsley, chives – this blend is so bright and bold
• Feta: totally optional, but we love them saltiness flavor it adds
• Roasted Chickpeas: you can buy roasted chickpeas or roast your own and they add great texture
• Olive Oil: used to roast the chickpeas
• Salt and Pepper: adds flavor
• Hard Boiled Eggs: adds protein and heartiness to the salad

This is meant to just be an overview of the ingredients for this salad. For all the details and measurements, scroll down to the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make a Fresh Spring Salad

I like to start salad recipes by making the dressing. It can be made up to a day or two ahead of time, so it’s nice to get that made and out of the way. For this salad dressing, just whisk all the ingredients together and set it aside.

Other parts of this recipe can also be prepped ahead of time. You can hard boil the eggs, toast the pine nuts and roast the chickpeas up

Citrus Oven Baked Salmon over Arugula Cucumber Salad

This citrus oven baked salmon salad is bright and fresh with crunchy roasted chickpeas and a delightful zesty dressing that is going to have you coming back for more!

This is the recipe that changed our lives!! Our very first week of being totally unpacked in our new place, it was time to get back in the kitchen and cooking again. I’ve felt so out of it with the stress of moving and when our oldest daughter mentioned she really wants to learn to like fish so she can incorporate some healthier foods into her diet, I timidly said yes.

I’ve hated salmon since the day I was born but I do secretly wish seafood wasn’t such a nemesis of mine so I jumped in. In the past I’ve liked it ok, but this citrus baked salmon salad absolutely sold me! It’s all about the flavors so do not substitute other seasonings unless you’re crazy.

I adapted this recipe from Tiffany Angela.

Ingredients for Salmon Salad

I’m going to recommend not substituting any of these ingredients because each one has an important role in bringing all the flavor to your plate! I’ve divided the ingredients into categories – dressing, salmon, chickpeas and the salad. Don’t get overwhelmed! None of the ingredients are weird or har