Vegan Pesto made with bärlauch, radish greens, and ancho chile

Last night I improvised a pesto. Improvisations are great ways to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Previously, I had made a vegan pesto inspired by delicious days’ radish green pesto. To radish greens, I added wild garlic or bear’s-paw garlic (what Germans call bärlauch), sunflower seeds, lemon juice and zest, salt, and olive oil. The radish greens give a peppery bite and a bright green to the pesto. Spring spreadable on bread!

Since I had some dried ancho chile peppers from my December trip to Mexico, I thought last night that they might be a good replacement for sun-dried tomatoes, so I added an entire rehydrated ancho chile to my pesto. Normally, smoky and sour and hot, the chile was perhaps not the best substitute for sun-dried tomatoes. In fact, it fairly overpowered the delicate spiciness of the radish greens and the delicate garlic flavor of the bear’s-paw garlic.

The pesto was still delicious last night on pumpkin seed bread under radish slices and tempeh, but restraint with the chile would work better next time.

Vegan Almond Mayonnaise with Roasted Asparagus and Leftover Pasta

The magical world of almonds has opened my eyes to vegan food without processed soy products!

After tasting delicious raw vegan almond mayonnaise at Rohvolution a few weekends ago, I set out to find a recipe to make my own raw vegan almond mayonnaise. I found the magical one on page 35 in the Healthy Living Cookbook - Excellent Vegan Recipes from HerbalLegacy.com, which they call "Almonnaise--a Perfectly Mucusless blender Mayonnaise".

I adapted their recipe somewhat to my taste, because I like stronger flavors and wanted something more like aioli.

Blend, in the following order:

1/2 cup whole raw almonds soaked in water for 24 hours
1/2 cup water
1 tsp nutritional yeast
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt or kelp
1-1.25 cups olive oil
5 Tbs. lemon juice

Keep up to 10 days in the refrigerator, tightly sealed.


Since asparagus is in season, I decided to pair the creamy, tart mayonnaise with the flavor that can only be described as asparagus--unless you want to call it "pee-ish". Which is not so appetizing...

I roasted a few asparagus stalks at 240 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes after tossing them with some oil and salt. These are from Morocco as Germany's aren't ready yet; at least, I haven't seen them at market.

I paired the asparagus and dressing with some left-over whole-grain pasta from last night, and the raw vegan almond mayonnaise was pretty good with the pasta too--a creamy lemon sauce.

After I took the photo, I added some roasted black sesame seeds for contrasting color and smell. Yum yum yum. I really can't wait to make more!