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I don’t like to waste food, so I always thrive to make as little garbage from kitchen scraps as possible.

The idea of the sugar pea pesto came from my carrot top pesto, which I make from leftover carrot tops and greens.

I didn’t have enough carrot top pesto left for a proper portion of pasta sauce, but it was too much to eat it over toasted bread, so I decided I will blend it up with some more ingredients such as frozen sugar peas that came from my granny’s garden and were waiting to be turned into a delicious dish.

This dish is also super satisfying if you’re looking to add more protein to your diet but you don’t want to shovel protein powder in your face.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup fresh basil

1/2 cup fresh parsley

1 cup frozen sugar peas (thawed)

3+2 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 tbsp lime juice

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

Sea salt to taste

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups gluten-free fusilli

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

Recipe:

Prepare your pasta according to package instructions.

In the meantime, prepare pesto. Add basil, parsley, peas, three cloves of garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice, and sea salt to a food processor. Mix to combine. While the machine is running, stream in olive oil through the spout.

Continue blending until creamy and fully combined. If it has trouble blending, add a bit more olive oil or water. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more lemon juice for acidity/brightness, vegan parmesan for cheesy flavor, salt for saltiness, or peas for sweetness.

Once your pasta is done, in a nonsticky skillet heat up one tbsp olive oil, then add two chopped cloves of garlic and chopped dried tomatoes, sauté until fragrant. Remove of heat, stir in pasta and pesto sauce.

Serve warm and garnish generously with additional parsley, pine nuts, and vegan parmesan cheese, or if you want to add more greens to it, stir in arugula or baby spinach leaves as well.

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