Cilantro Pesto!

I'm hoping I've caught you in time! Hopefully you haven't decided what you're having for dinner yet, or are looking for an awesome recipe to make this weekend!

I can only describe this pesto as the best of everything. It's sweet, spicy, sour, nutty, cilantro-y, and has pretty much replaced Naan Pizza in my life as my new food obsession. (Don't worry, not completely. I've actually started slathering this stuff on Naan Pizza. I am a champion.)

This is one of those recipes that require a food processor (or a mortar and pestle for those of you who are into that blood, sweat, and tears kind of cooking), which means make a big batch! I can only convince myself to break out the food processor for recipes that are especially worth it, because cleaning that beast is a hassle. 

This cilantro pesto is worth it. Waaaaaay worth it. I tripled the recipe below, kept a small jar of it in the fridge (for a quick weekday meal) and froze the rest into an ice cube tray (which I'll pop out and throw into a freezer bag for quick meals in the future). 

Ingredients: (now remember, I tripled this recipe!)

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, loosely packed

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (if you do it right, 1 lime should yield 3 tbsp of juice)

2 tablespoons dry roasted peanuts

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons honey

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Add cilantro, lime juice, roasted peanuts, garlic, salt, honey, and crushed red pepper to food processor.

2. With food processor running, add olive oil until desired consistency is reached. (I like my pesto a tad on the thick side. I always add a little bit of olive oil to whatever I'm cooking and this usually thins the pesto out pretty nicely.)

I especially love this stuff on seafood - it's great for a quick meal because you can pan sear some sort of fish (I love it with salmon, tilapia, flounder, and mahi mahi), or sauté some shrimp or chicken, then finish it off with this sauce on the top. It basically goes with everything. 

It's awesome. 

You should try it so the next time I see you we can talk about it and hold hands and jump up and down kicking and screaming about how amazing this stuff is. 

Seriously. Recipes like this make me wish you could click on a button to download me and I could come into your kitchen and make it for you. THAT good.