cilantro pesto

I love cilantro, but I’m not sure cilantro loves me back. I try to grow it every year, and it always bolts at the first day over 85 degrees. I’ve tried all sorts of things…growing it in the shade, growing it in a pot, growing it in a pot in the shade, and nothing works. I still try every year, so I’ll keep you posted on Sara versus Cilantro Round 19 this year. So our organic co-op had lots of cilantro a few weeks ago, and I took home a ton of it. I used it in pico and tacos and guacamole and black bean hummus (recipe still to come), and I still had lots leftover. So I made some cilantro pesto, which was a really, really good decision.

I made the pesto and then froze it in ice cube trays, which is my go-to preservation method for most herbs and pesto. It works great for this especially because this pesto is really potent, so a little bit goes a long way.

Cilantro pesto
Loosely adapted from here

Ingredients

3 cups cilantro, large stems removed
1/2 cup blanched almonds (I used sliced almonds that I had on hand because they were already blanched)
1 small onion
1 jalapeno
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Throw all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until thoroughly pureed. This recipe makes a very potent batch, so, if you plan to use it right away, thin it with some additional olive oil. Otherwise, I recommend freezing it in ice cube trays for future use.

We have used this as a dressing for cabbage slaw (a-mazing), thinned with some olive oil as the sauce for tacos, in place of the dressing on these veggie bowls, and thinned with some olive oil as a simple salad dressing. Try it and experiment on your own!