Vegan Dandelion Pesto

Okay Kids, what about those dandelions? They are beautiful...okay take a second look and really look at their beauty. Right you see it now! I was weeding the garden and looking at all of the dandelions that I was throwing away. I am sure that I can do something with all of this "waste". What about Pesto, ever heard about arugala pesto? Here is the low down... I was so surprised at how unbitter this pesto was, really it was so delicious that I just had to make it again... and again! So surprised!

Dandelion Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Makes Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

• ¾ cup unsalted hulled (green) pumpkin seeds
• 4 garlic gloves
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 bunch dandelion greens (about 6 cups, loosely packed)
• 1 lemon juiced
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ⅛ cup water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Black pepper, to tasted

Directions

Place pumpkin seeds in a large skillet and roast over medium heat. Stir consistently until golden brown and you can hear they pop a little. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
Pulse the garlic and pumpkin seeds together in the bowl of a food processor until very finely chopped.
Add nutritional yeast, dandelion greens, and lemon juice and process continuously until combined. Stop the processor every now and again to scrape down the sides of the bowl. The pesto will be very thick and difficult to process after awhile — that's ok.
With the blade running, slowly pour in the olive oil and process. Add the water a little bit at a time until the pesto is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Here is a tip for you all, when using your Cuisinart, the most difficult thing about the Cuisinart is having to clean that silly lid. So a way I fix that is to wrap the lid is plastic wrap. Then when I am done I just unwrap the lid and viola!

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Garlic

It is August and now is the time to start harvesting and planting garlic! If you have never planted garlic, now is the time to give it a try, and if you have then there is always something that you can learn!
Garlic (allium sativum,) just the sound of the word or the smell of it on some body's breath can send you running for your life in the opposite direction! What most people don't know is that garlic has a hugely long history. Garlic is believed to be first originated in central Asia and then brought around the world by traders. Now everyone knows what garlic is, even if they don't like it. However, if you are like my family and I, you know that the more garlic you use the better everything is.
I remember when I was really young, there was a next door neighbor girl who would come over all the time because she loved the way our house smelled. As she said, our house smelled like garlic. I tell you what, you will not meet very many people like her. Often she would leave her stuffed animals at our house for a week or more, so that the smell of our house would penetrate her toys, this way she could smell garlic at her house!
Now I am not saying that you have to leave your toys at my house, because if you do I will throw them away! What I am saying is that you too can have a house that will draw people from all around because of the pleasant aroma!
I was going to post the article that I wrote explaining when to plant garlic, how to care for it, and when to harvest it; but I found that the article is way too long to be published here. For your sake I will just leave the link for it, and if you want you can read it! Click HERE for the article about garlic or you can click on any of the garlic pictures
Hope you enjoy!



~Zach

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