Spicy Arugula & Lemon Pesto

Ready to spice up your pesto routine? This is a great pesto sauce to make when you have that bumper crop of arugula in your garden, like I did 2 weeks ago. This way you can use it all before it bolts.

Plus you can freeze the extra to preserve the taste of summer well into fall and early winter. 🙂

Arugula Pesto Ingredients

Yields 1 cup

Ingredients

3 cups arugula leaves

3/4 cup grated parmesan

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons juice)

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Peel garlic cloves and juice the lemon into a blender or food processor. Start with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add all ingredients to the blender or food processor and combine until smooth. Adjust salt, pepper and other ingredients to taste.

You can always add more lemon or olive oil if you would like it to be more lemony or thinner.

This pesto goes great on pasta, pizza, paninis, with eggs or in a wrap with turkey and vegetables.

Alternatives:

This is a spicy pesto that is stronger than a classic basil pesto. You can tone down the spiciness by using 1 garlic clove instead of 2. You can also substitute 1 cup of basil leaves for 1 of the cups of arugula leaves.

Pine nuts or cashews can be substituted for the walnuts.

The Empowered Kitchen Tips

Pesto freezes really well. If you want to save some of this for fall or early winter cooking you can freeze it in ice cube trays and put those frozen cubes of pesto in a well-sealed container with the label of the pesto and date in the freezer. They keep well for about 5-6 months, so make another batch near the end of summer if you want some for fall or early winter to have a taste of your summer garden again.

When you want pesto pasta or pesto on a meat or veggie dish, just pop out a frozen cube and let it thaw or melt in the pan and you have a ready made sauce. 🙂 Now that’s meal prep months in advance!