Today marks the beginning of this year’s National Vegetarian Week and I am planning to share some of my easiest family vegetarian recipes with you. Whether you are trying vegetarianism for the first time, are meat reducing with Meat Free Monday or are a seasoned vegetarian I hope you will find something here this week to tempt you, to show you how simple veggie food can be and how tasty and satisfying it is! To kick off I am sharing this easy peasy (see what I did there?!) Pea Pesto Pasta – simple ingredients, ready in 15 minutes flat.
I love the subtle fresh taste of a pesto made with frozen peas, a generous amount of basil, a little mint, some pine nuts, garlic, oil and lemon. It creates a dish suitable for vegetarians, vegans and the rest of you! Bung some sun dried tomatoes and spring onions on top and you lift it from tasty to delicious, adding a depth of flavour which complements the herbs in the sauce perfectly.
You need to defrost your peas before you start but, other than that, you just chuck everything into a blender of food processor, press start and whizz it all until it’s smooth!
Look at that colour! I’m still so impressed with the Froothie blender for smoothness, I’ve made this for years using my food processor but it’s not a patch on this!
Pea Pesto with Spaghetti
Ingredients
For the Pea Pesto
- 1 cup of frozen peas thawed
- 1 cup fresh basil be generous, squash it in, you can’t really have too much basil!
- 1/2 cup fresh mint
- 2 large cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup olive oil
- salt and black pepper
To Serve
- 300 g spaghetti pasta
- 6 sun dried tomatoes in oil drained and chopped
- 6 spring onions scallions trimmed and sliced
- a handful of baby spinach leaves per person or salad leaves of your choice
- black pepper
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients for the pesto (start with 1/2 cup of oil) into a blender and blend until smooth, taste and adjust seasoning to taste – add more oil if it is too thick.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil.
- Add the pasta to the water and cook according to instructions on the pack – usually about 12 minutes – until al dente.
- Drain, return to the pan, pour in the pesto and toss until well combined.
- Place a handful of spinach leaves into 4 pasta bowls, top with spaghetti and sprinkle with sun dried tomatoes and spring onions.
- Grind some black pepper over the top and serve!
Pea pesto is something I take with us to the boat if we are on the mooring with no electricity or whizz up if we are tied up on a pontoon and plugged in – it’s so simple and so delicious it has become a firm family favourite. I hope you will be tempted to try it!
If you like this Pea Pesto Recipe why not pin it for later so you can find it when you are peckish?!
The Vegetarian Society has some fabulous ideas to inspire you this National Vegetarian Week do go and have a look! Or you could pop over to Cranks who are featuring my recipe and recipes from more veggie bloggers to mark #NVW2016!
Disclaimer: You can expect to see lots more recipes using the Froothie Optimum G2.1 here on Thinly Spread as I am an ambassador for Froothie. Any links in this post or others which mention Froothie are affiliate links, if you purchase through my link it won’t cost you anymore but it will earn me a small commission. I only support and endorse products I am happy to use myself, I have not been paid for this post and all opinions are my own.
What a gorgeous recipe Chris, i’ll have to give this a whirl as my kids love peas and pasta, and all those lovely Spring flavours together just sound lush!
It’s really fresh Katie, just right to welcome the sun 🙂
I love pesto but my boyfriend doesn’t (he says it tastes like perfume) – do the peas make it less ‘pesto-y’ if you know what I mean?
Yes, I actually think that they do! Let me know what he thinks – is he talking all pesto or the shop bought ones which are a bit oTT?
So simple but I imagine incredibly delicious. I can’t wait to try it.
Fab! Thank you!
Yum yum bubblegum!
Gonna definitely try this as we are trying to have lots on meat free meals.
Hee hee to yum yum bubblegum, haven’t heard that for years! I love that you still pop by for a read, thank you 🙂 xxxx
I love the flavour of peas but am not a fan of the texture, so pea pesto sounds perfect for me. Can’t beat a quick pasta dish!
One of my children is just the same – weirdos – but he can gobble this down quite happily!
Ooh fab idea! I love how simple and easy this looks
Ooh, this pesto looks so smooth and GREEN. I’ve made plenty of pea dips, but never thought to use it like this. Love it.