**The Art of Making Pesto**

I've tried putting it at the beginning, but I realized that's not how it works. I thought it would be a good idea to start with blending, and it just didn't solve the issues of blending like I had hoped. So, I'm going to start by blending it, and I'm starting with a simple pulsing motion. If it doesn't seem like it's blending, feel free to help push things down because a lot of air can get caught between the leafy greens. It's all about being patient because if you just turn it on blend, you're gonna end up with a spinach basil smoothie, not pesto. So, I'm going to stick with the pulsing motion and see where it takes me.

As I continue blending, I can see that some of the green is sticking to the side of the blender. I'll help bring that in by bringing the lid closer and continuing to pulse until my desired thickness. This is what I like - still a bit thin, but not so smooth that you can't see the ingredients anymore. That's how pesto should be made - it shouldn't all be blended together into a green mush.

**Making Pesto for the First Time**

I've decided to make pesto from scratch, and I'm excited to share the process with you. To start, I'll add fresh basil leaves, garlic cloves, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil to my blender. The proportions of these ingredients can vary depending on your personal taste, but for this recipe, I've found a balance that works well.

**Tips and Tricks**

One of the things I've learned is that you need to be patient when making pesto. It's not as simple as just blending all the ingredients together at once. You need to take it one step at a time, pulsing until everything is well combined but still retains some texture. This will help prevent the pesto from becoming too smooth and losing its unique character.

Another tip I've found useful is to use a high-powered blender. If you have a regular blender that doesn't have enough power to break down the ingredients, it's going to be difficult to get the desired consistency. My blender has worked beautifully for this recipe so far.

**Using Pesto in Your Recipes**

Now that I have my homemade pesto, I'm excited to share some ideas on how to use it in your recipes. One of my favorite ways is to make a classic pasta dish with pesto sauce. Simply cook your pasta according to the package instructions, then toss it with the pesto sauce and top with parmesan cheese.

Another idea is to make a Mediterranean pasta salad. This is perfect for hot summer days when you need something light and refreshing. Mix cooked pasta with pesto sauce, crumbled feta cheese, sliced red onion, artichoke hearts, pine nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. If you like olives, feel free to add those in as well.

If you're looking for a more savory option, try using pesto on grilled chicken sandwiches. Simply spread a layer of pesto sauce on toasted bread, top with sliced grilled chicken breast, melted monterey jack cheese, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, and tomato. It's a game-changer!

**More Ideas for Using Pesto**

I've found so many creative ways to use pesto in my cooking, and I'm excited to share them with you. One idea is to make pizza sauce using fresh basil pesto instead of traditional tomato sauce. This adds a delicious twist to the classic margherita pizza.

Another option is to add pesto to your caprese salad by drizzling it over sliced mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and fresh basil leaves. It's a simple but elegant way to elevate this classic Italian dish.

For those looking for something more adventurous, try using pesto in baked chicken recipes or rice dishes. These ideas are still a work in progress for me, so I'd love to hear from you if you have any favorite ways to use pesto!

**Conclusion**

That's it for today's video on making homemade pesto! I hope you enjoyed learning the process and were inspired to get creative with your cooking. Remember to be patient when making pesto, as this will ensure that you get the best results. If you do try out this recipe or have any favorite ways to use pesto, please let me know in the comments below. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more recipes and cooking tips!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys welcome back to my channel or if you're new here welcome i'm brooke i live in northern california and i make lifestyle vlogs so if you are new to pesto or you've just never made it before pesto actually does have a significant amount of pine nuts in it and some people are allergic some people don't like it or some people are just looking for a really awesome pesto recipe so i'm going to show you the ingredients i'm using how i make the pesto and then at the end stick around i'm going to be sharing some recipes with you guys and meal ideas for how to use pesto so i have fresh basil i have baby spinach baby arugula salt pepper parmesan cheese grated olive oil lemon juice and garlic so obviously you can use fresh lemons you can grate your own parmesan if you would really like to and if you're wondering how we are making this taste like pesto without using pine nuts because it's a pretty important part of the flavor profile you need to have kind of that nutty taste an important characteristic of pesto that's where the arugula comes in so arugula is known for having a pretty nutty taste and this is what we're going to be using as a substitute i have out my blender i use a vitamix we are going to be using one and a half cups of fresh basil so i pack down my cups pretty tightly so there's one i actually might have picked the exact amount i picked this from my garden like 10 minutes ago oh my gosh what that estimation is on point okay one and a half i really thought i had gotten too much and then we're going to be doing one and a half of the baby spinach as well and you don't have to chop the spinach or anything that will happen in here there's one and then half cup okay we're going to be using a half cup of the baby arugula okay next is parmesan cheese so i don't like a ton of parmesan in mine so i'm only going to do a fourth cup however you can use a fourth cup up to a half cup depending on how cheesy you want yours to be so i'm actually gonna do just a little over a fourth cup so kind of a heavy four fourth cup but not quite half i use minced garlic so i kind of eyeball it if you're using cloves use four cloves so that's about one two three and four and i do estimate a little heavy for each clove i estimate as if they're all kind of a super sized clove because i do like garlic next i'm going to put the lemon juice so you can either do a tablespoon or because i use a little squeeze thing i just do two seconds worth so i do one two and that's all next we're going to do salt i do three fourths of a teaspoon but i only have a half teaspoon on here so i'm going to do one and a half of these and then half a teaspoon of pepper unfortunately um i am out of the pre-ground up pepper so i'm gonna have to eyeball it and last but certainly not least is olive oil so you want to make sure that you don't use too cheap of an olive oil that it doesn't taste good but you also don't want to use an expensive one so the one i use is star it's very affordable but it also has a pleasant taste and so it goes really well in the pesto this is the one i always use for this we're going to use half a cup however you may need a little more if it's not blending so i'm just going to measure this out and i prefer to kind of pour around the edges because i want to make sure that it gets down to the bottom so if you put the olive oil first in the blender it will quickly blend all of the leafy greens and it will turn it into almost like a thick smoothie and we don't want that so we want it to blend evenly so you can add the olive oil in the middle of mixing the other ingredients or at the end but don't put it at the beginning i've tried that before because it seemed like it would be a good idea and it would solve the issues of blending but it just didn't work that way so i'm going to start blending it and i'm going to start by just pulsing it if it doesn't seem like it's blending feel free to help push things down because a lot of air can get caught between the leafy greens so just help it get around the blades and it's all about being patient because if you just turn it on blend you're gonna end up with a spinach basil smoothie not pesto so stick with the pulsing so we're starting to get somewhere so i'm actually gonna bring you guys in a little bit so you can see what's going on so i do have some of the green sticking to the side so i'm gonna help bring that in and then keep pulsing until your desired thickness perfect so i have my pesto exactly how i like it so i will show you the thickness and consistency that i prefer so this is the consistency that i like it's still thin but it's not a smoothie you can still see some of the ingredients in there and that's the way that pesto should be it should not all be completely blended together into a green bush so this is ideal so now i'm just going to pour the pesto into this mason jar this is just a standard size mason jar and i will show you guys how much pesto this recipe makes all right so i just finished pouring and this is a 16 ounce mason jar that's the standard size of mason jars and it's built a little bit over halfway so i would say this is probably about 12 ounces worth of pesto so depending on what you're using it for this may be enough or you may need to make several so before i get into the final portion of this video sharing with you guys meal ideas and different ways to use pesto i just wanted to say thank you to two of my subscribers janelle nicole and eb style so you two had commented on what i eat in a day video which i will add a card at the top if you want to check that out and i had a pesto pasta on there and you guys had mentioned how that looked so good and i realized that i might want to do a video on that so my favorite way to use pesto is probably pesto pasta um so it is exactly what it sounds like make pasta and as the sauce you use pesto this is really good with parmesan cheese on top or feta cheese another pasta option is a mediterranean pasta salad so for this you would use the pesto mix it with mayo to create a pesto mayo sauce and of course again with pasta it's a pasta salad with this you add in feta cheese sliced red onion artichoke hearts pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes and if you want you can do kalamata olives as well and my next one which actually might be number one after all is a grilled chicken sandwich so again i use the pesto in a pesto mayo sauce i grill chicken breast and i melt monterey jack cheese over it i put this on toasted whole wheat burger bun and i also throw in avocado alfalfa sprouts lettuce and tomato it is so so good you can also use pesto for pizza so i have seen it um as the sauce instead of red sauce i've also seen it on margarita pizza so instead of the fresh basil i've seen drizzles of fresh basil pesto this is also used for capri salads so you can make your regular capri salad with just your mozzarella and tomatoes and instead of the fresh basil leaves again you can drizzle it with fresh pesto i've also seen delicious pesto shrimp recipes and pesto rice recipes and people are really getting crazy baked chicken with pesto and tomato in it and there are so many ideas but those are some of my favorite so i found a few websites online that have dozens and dozens of ideas to use pesto so if you are interested in some of those i will link those websites below so you guys can get some ideas of your own if you have a favorite pesto recipe please let me know in the comments below you can either link it or just tell me pesto baked chicken or whatever it is i would love to hear your ideas because i love pesto and now i have pesto if you've made it this far then hey maybe like here maybe you should give this video a big thumbs up and subscribe below i have several playlists and different types of videos that i am sure will appeal to you so thank you again so much for watching my video i hope you enjoy it here on my channel and i will see you in my next onehi guys welcome back to my channel or if you're new here welcome i'm brooke i live in northern california and i make lifestyle vlogs so if you are new to pesto or you've just never made it before pesto actually does have a significant amount of pine nuts in it and some people are allergic some people don't like it or some people are just looking for a really awesome pesto recipe so i'm going to show you the ingredients i'm using how i make the pesto and then at the end stick around i'm going to be sharing some recipes with you guys and meal ideas for how to use pesto so i have fresh basil i have baby spinach baby arugula salt pepper parmesan cheese grated olive oil lemon juice and garlic so obviously you can use fresh lemons you can grate your own parmesan if you would really like to and if you're wondering how we are making this taste like pesto without using pine nuts because it's a pretty important part of the flavor profile you need to have kind of that nutty taste an important characteristic of pesto that's where the arugula comes in so arugula is known for having a pretty nutty taste and this is what we're going to be using as a substitute i have out my blender i use a vitamix we are going to be using one and a half cups of fresh basil so i pack down my cups pretty tightly so there's one i actually might have picked the exact amount i picked this from my garden like 10 minutes ago oh my gosh what that estimation is on point okay one and a half i really thought i had gotten too much and then we're going to be doing one and a half of the baby spinach as well and you don't have to chop the spinach or anything that will happen in here there's one and then half cup okay we're going to be using a half cup of the baby arugula okay next is parmesan cheese so i don't like a ton of parmesan in mine so i'm only going to do a fourth cup however you can use a fourth cup up to a half cup depending on how cheesy you want yours to be so i'm actually gonna do just a little over a fourth cup so kind of a heavy four fourth cup but not quite half i use minced garlic so i kind of eyeball it if you're using cloves use four cloves so that's about one two three and four and i do estimate a little heavy for each clove i estimate as if they're all kind of a super sized clove because i do like garlic next i'm going to put the lemon juice so you can either do a tablespoon or because i use a little squeeze thing i just do two seconds worth so i do one two and that's all next we're going to do salt i do three fourths of a teaspoon but i only have a half teaspoon on here so i'm going to do one and a half of these and then half a teaspoon of pepper unfortunately um i am out of the pre-ground up pepper so i'm gonna have to eyeball it and last but certainly not least is olive oil so you want to make sure that you don't use too cheap of an olive oil that it doesn't taste good but you also don't want to use an expensive one so the one i use is star it's very affordable but it also has a pleasant taste and so it goes really well in the pesto this is the one i always use for this we're going to use half a cup however you may need a little more if it's not blending so i'm just going to measure this out and i prefer to kind of pour around the edges because i want to make sure that it gets down to the bottom so if you put the olive oil first in the blender it will quickly blend all of the leafy greens and it will turn it into almost like a thick smoothie and we don't want that so we want it to blend evenly so you can add the olive oil in the middle of mixing the other ingredients or at the end but don't put it at the beginning i've tried that before because it seemed like it would be a good idea and it would solve the issues of blending but it just didn't work that way so i'm going to start blending it and i'm going to start by just pulsing it if it doesn't seem like it's blending feel free to help push things down because a lot of air can get caught between the leafy greens so just help it get around the blades and it's all about being patient because if you just turn it on blend you're gonna end up with a spinach basil smoothie not pesto so stick with the pulsing so we're starting to get somewhere so i'm actually gonna bring you guys in a little bit so you can see what's going on so i do have some of the green sticking to the side so i'm gonna help bring that in and then keep pulsing until your desired thickness perfect so i have my pesto exactly how i like it so i will show you the thickness and consistency that i prefer so this is the consistency that i like it's still thin but it's not a smoothie you can still see some of the ingredients in there and that's the way that pesto should be it should not all be completely blended together into a green bush so this is ideal so now i'm just going to pour the pesto into this mason jar this is just a standard size mason jar and i will show you guys how much pesto this recipe makes all right so i just finished pouring and this is a 16 ounce mason jar that's the standard size of mason jars and it's built a little bit over halfway so i would say this is probably about 12 ounces worth of pesto so depending on what you're using it for this may be enough or you may need to make several so before i get into the final portion of this video sharing with you guys meal ideas and different ways to use pesto i just wanted to say thank you to two of my subscribers janelle nicole and eb style so you two had commented on what i eat in a day video which i will add a card at the top if you want to check that out and i had a pesto pasta on there and you guys had mentioned how that looked so good and i realized that i might want to do a video on that so my favorite way to use pesto is probably pesto pasta um so it is exactly what it sounds like make pasta and as the sauce you use pesto this is really good with parmesan cheese on top or feta cheese another pasta option is a mediterranean pasta salad so for this you would use the pesto mix it with mayo to create a pesto mayo sauce and of course again with pasta it's a pasta salad with this you add in feta cheese sliced red onion artichoke hearts pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes and if you want you can do kalamata olives as well and my next one which actually might be number one after all is a grilled chicken sandwich so again i use the pesto in a pesto mayo sauce i grill chicken breast and i melt monterey jack cheese over it i put this on toasted whole wheat burger bun and i also throw in avocado alfalfa sprouts lettuce and tomato it is so so good you can also use pesto for pizza so i have seen it um as the sauce instead of red sauce i've also seen it on margarita pizza so instead of the fresh basil i've seen drizzles of fresh basil pesto this is also used for capri salads so you can make your regular capri salad with just your mozzarella and tomatoes and instead of the fresh basil leaves again you can drizzle it with fresh pesto i've also seen delicious pesto shrimp recipes and pesto rice recipes and people are really getting crazy baked chicken with pesto and tomato in it and there are so many ideas but those are some of my favorite so i found a few websites online that have dozens and dozens of ideas to use pesto so if you are interested in some of those i will link those websites below so you guys can get some ideas of your own if you have a favorite pesto recipe please let me know in the comments below you can either link it or just tell me pesto baked chicken or whatever it is i would love to hear your ideas because i love pesto and now i have pesto if you've made it this far then hey maybe like here maybe you should give this video a big thumbs up and subscribe below i have several playlists and different types of videos that i am sure will appeal to you so thank you again so much for watching my video i hope you enjoy it here on my channel and i will see you in my next one\n"