Cheap and Healthy Homemade Food: Pesto
When going to the grocery store one thing to keep in mind are the prices on the products, and how you’ll be able to spend less money but get more bang for your buck. Today in this article I will be teaching you how to save some money on your trip to the grocery store by making a batch of homemade pesto, which can be used to enhance a wide variety of different dishes.
The first step to making homemade pesto is getting the ingredients required, and luckily pesto is very light on the ingredients needing only olive oil, grated Parmesan (however you can use any grated cheese of your liking), garlic, pine nuts, and the most important ingredient fresh basil. You will be able to buy the olive oil, garlic, and cheese in bulk for cheap, however pine nuts will be on the more pricey side with one pound being around 19 dollars. The price is well worth it for the amount of pesto you are able to make with the ingredients, although you can substitute the pine nuts with cheaper pecans or walnuts. The main ingredient basil is also very cheap to buy in bulk at a farmers market, but for this homemade version I would recommend growing your own if possible. Homegrown basil makes the pesto taste extremely fresh and sharp pushing the pesto to the next level.
Once all the ingredients have been gathered the only thing left to do is combine them. Get out a food processor or a blender and add the ingredients. The general rule to follow is for every three to four cups of basil add three or four cloves of garlic, a large handful of pine nuts, a handful or two of grated cheese, and a good douse of olive oil, a half to full cup. Then after adding all the ingredients you blend them together until everything is thoroughly combined. Each batch makes around two to four small containers of pesto. What’s really interesting about this recipe is that it is easily changed. If you like your pesto to have more of a nutty flavor add more pine nuts; if you really like cheese you can add more cheese. There are no fixed amounts to each batch and because of that it makes for a subtle change of flavor each time you make pesto.
I would highly recommend trying this to anyone out there even remotely interested. The flavor and taste is amazing with store bought products falling miles away in the dust.
