Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

Rocket & pistachio pesto, with garlic, basil and dairy free truffle parmesan cheese. This is a vibrant, fresh pesto, with a deep nuttiness from the pistachios. I love making pesto with rocket, as it gives the pesto a delicious peppery flavour. This pesto would work well with hot or cold pasta, as well as spreading onto sandwiches or eating as a dip

Yield; 240g pesto Prep time; 10 minutes

You’ll need;

1. 120g rocket, roughly chopped
2. 40g chopped pistachios, this is the shelled weight
3. 30g dairy free parmesan style cheese, grated
4. One tablespoon of lemon juice
5. Three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
6. Two cloves of garlic, minced
7. Two teaspoon of dried basil
8. One and a half tablespoons of water

Method;

• All you have to do is pop everything into a food processor/blender and blend. You can choose how chunky or smooth you want your pesto to be. I like mine to be fairly smooth, but not uniformly smooth

I would recommend storing your pesto in an ice cube tray in the freezer. Freezing pesto means that you can keep it as long as possible without it going off or mouldy, so you’re not wasting any. It’s also really easy to defrost a few cubes as and when you need them

Chickpea Pesto Pasta Salad

This pesto pasta salad is great for a quick meal, picnic or lunch. It has a great mix of flavours and textures, with some chickpeas for added plant based protein

You’ll need;

1. 300g penne, this is the dry, uncooked weight
2. 250g mixed baby tomatoes, sliced in half
3. Half a cucumber, chopped
4. Half a bunch of spring onions, thinly sliced
5. One 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
6. 150g rocket & pistachio pesto

Method;

• Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions and chickpeas. Once they’re prepared, add them into a mixing bowl
• Once the pasta is cooked, drain away the water and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain the pasta again, then pop everything into a large mixing bowl and mix to combine

This pasta salad will keep in the fridge for up to three days, in an airtight container

Vegan Parmesan Cheese

I used a vegan truffle parmesan cheese by Vegaliano called Gondino. I thought it worked really well for this recipe and I really liked the addition of the truffle, it also worked well grated onto pasta and salads

Most supermarkets, here in the UK at least, will stock plant based parmesan/hard cheese alternative. So I would recommend trying a few out and using your favourite. A few of my favourites are Violife Prosociano, Lidl Vermondo and Tesco Plant Chef vegan hard cheese alternative