Celery Leaf Pesto with Brazil Nuts and Coconut Milk - Dairy Free!

Anybody else out there find store-bought free-from pesto inedible, unhealthy or boring? Since I've cut out sugar and tofu, it's become impossible to find vegan sauces that I can eat. Forget about regular pesto with cheese and milk (bye bye pesto!). I'm a fan of making my own sauces but I'm also a fan of reducing food waste... so I developed this free-from pesto using brazil nuts and left-over celery leaves. It doesn't contain any dairy, tofu, corn, added oil, sugar or gluten. I used the celery leaf pesto with my summer herb buckwheat pasta salad.

By the way, here's why I'm using celery leaves. I recently went to my local farmer's market at Broadway Market / London Fields and bought organic celery for my daily morning celery juice. I noticed that these stalks were super leafy, and using all the leaves in the juice makes it extremely bitter. The lady at the stand said the leaves are edible and super healthy so I looked it up. It turns out, celery leaves contain 500% more vitamin c, calcium, magnesium and phenolic compounds than the stalk alone!

You must also be wondering why I used Brazil nuts instead of pine nuts. Well, Brazil nuts are a fantastic natural source of selenium, which is great to strengthening the immune system. It's also a great source of omega-6, vitamin E & B complex, protein and minerals. Since you only need eat 2-4 nuts a day, you'll easily get your daily Brazil nut intake by having a serving of this pesto!

Dairy-Free Celery Leaf Pesto with Brazil Nuts

Dairy free, gluten free, grain free, oil free, sugar free, paleo, vegan

3-4 servings
Prep time: 15 min

Ingredients:

• handful of organic celery leaves
• 10 organic Brazil nuts
• 1/4 cup organic coconut milk
• 2 tbsp coconut water
• 2 tbsp organic lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• 1 organic garlic clove
• pinch of himalayan salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients into a food processor or high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
2. Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to 3 days.