Well, howdy! I wasn’t sure I’d ever get back to blogging here again. I just went through all of the comments that people have left on various posts over the past several years and I apologize to those whose comments I missed. It was lovely to read your thoughts, and it reminded me that we often don’t realize how we may be impacting others. I had a similar thought last fall when a Lifetime menu planning subscriber called me out of the blue just to tell me how my recipes have impacted her over the years, helping her to lose weight and eat healthier.
A brief overview of the past several years…
Life has been interesting to say the least, but I think we can all say that to some degree with Covid interrupting practically everyone’s lives almost four years ago. Even before the Covid era began, I was feeling ready for a change in my career. So, I spent a good part of a few years focusing on bringing to life another business. However, in 2023 it became clear that my well-intentioned experiment was not sustaining me and my family like I needed it to.
Alas, I returned to cooking a couple of years ago because honestly, people continued to contact me to cook for them as a personal chef without me putting an inch of effort into it (all the while I was working long hours on my other business venture). I’m starting to realize that the things that come very naturally to us are the gifts we’ve been given to share with others. The Universe kept telling me to get back to personal cheffing and so I said yes. I don’t cook as much as I used to, but I’ve enjoyed the steady pace of working for families and individuals again here in Baltimore, Maryland as well as the surrounding areas.
How to make pesto for (almost) any diet:
Last year I took some photos of the food I was making for one of my clients, one of them being the Pesto Chicken and Roasted Broccoli you see above. These are two of my favorite recipes (well, minus the chicken because I’ve found that eating vegetarian has helped me with various perimenopausal symptoms). But I LOVE pesto, and I LOVE roasted broccoli!
The fun and tricky thing about making pesto for clients with various dietary needs is it can be quite versatile depending on what you can and can’t eat. I’ve had clients whose diet is nut-free, dairy-free, garlic-free, seed-free, soy-free, etc., and I seem to be able to make some kind of pesto that not only works for their diet but is also delicious.
I’ve made pesto without the cheese, garlic, and nuts and they’ve all turned out well. If all of these ingredients were deleted, it might not be very tasty. But my general rule of thumb is if I’m not using nuts or seeds, I use extra cheese. If I’m not using cheese, I use extra nuts or seeds. As far as the garlic goes, I find basil itself spicy by itself, so I personally don’t think it needs it, unless you really love garlic. Here’s my go-to recipe that I simply adapt as needed:
Pesto Recipe
- 2 cups fresh basil, washed and dried
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, to taste (use less if using more cheese)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, or pumpkin seeds
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, or dairy-free parmesan, or nutritional yeast
- 1/4- 1/2 cups olive oil, until you reach your desire consistency
Steps:
1. Add basil leaves to food processor and chop. Add garlic, pine nuts or other nut or seed of choice, cheese or nutritional yeast, salt, and lemon juice. Pulse. Add olive oil until you have a nice paste consistency.
2. Add pesto to cooked chicken, steamed or roasted veggies, or rice.
Dairy-free Parmesan Suggestions
As for dairy-free parmesan, I haven’t tried that many but here is a short list of ones I might recommend based on their ingredients:
Violife Shaved Parmesan – This is not fully nut-free as it contains coconut oil. But this may work for you if you can’t have most nuts but you’re okay with coconut oil.
NOOCH IT! Fair Trade Cashew Parmesan – This one is not nut-free but if you’re okay with cashews and hemp seeds, you could give it a try.
Brown Rice Miso – In the book, May all Be Fed, Diet for a New World by John Robbins, he uses brown rice miso in his pesto recipe to replace the cheese, using about 1 Tbsp. per 2.5 cups of basil leaves.
Again, you can just try to delete the cheese component and use extra nuts or seeds. Seeds and nuts are used to make alternative dairy-free cheeses anyway, cashews being one of the main ones.
Other Pesto Recipes:
Here are two other pesto recipes that you can try that are also dairy and nut-free.
Artichoke Pesto – (dairy and nut-free)
Spinach Basil Pesto (nut-free, seed-free, and dairy-free)
Roasted Broccoli Recipe
- 5-6 cups broccoli florets
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- sea salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cut the broccoli into medium florets. (I like to cut the thick stems in half so they cook more quickly). Place broccoli on a roasting pan and drizzle the olive oil over it. Using your hands, mix the broccoli so that the olive oil is covering the florets. Use additional olive oil if needed.
2. Spread the broccoli over the pan, making sure the florets do not overlap. Use two pans if needed. Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over the broccoli. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through and slightly browned.
Happy New Year!
I hope to get back to writing more consistently as I have plans for more things I want to share with you. Until then, be well and Happy New Year 🙂
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