When I was recently fighting off an immune-intruder, I quickly went to the holy grail of holistic healing and using food as medicine – the book that ALL people who want to live a natural life should have on their bookshelf: “Prescription for Nutritional Healing.” This book organizes injuries, diseases, and natural approaches to even emergency care in an easy A-Z reference list. So, considering my symptoms, I knew I would want something heavy on the anti-oxidants and anti-virals. The cure? Pesto!
While I do make a killer vegan cauliflower mash (as a substitute for carb-heavy potatoes or grains when you are looking for a side-dish), which you can find the recipe to here, I needed something not only delicious, but specifically designed to use the natural detoxification properties of garlic and herbs. Thinking about my own health, when I had been encouraged by natural doctors to consume parsley tea in order to help the detoxification process, it always made me feel so sick that I knew there was something to it. So, I started searching for a low-carb pesto that would help me to pack a punch to what I was fighting off. I tried multiple variations* but here is low-carb pesto that I am confident you will agree is the best-o. You won’t even know it’s low carb given that traditional pesto uses pine nuts, which have nearly 20 grams of carbs in one cup! Even more fun is that the recipe is…
Not only Detoxifying and anti-viral, but Raw, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, low-carbohydrate, ketogenic, paleo, whole 30, and made of whole foods
What you will need:
You will need a food processor for this recipe (here is the one I use given its perfect blend of functionality and cost-effectiveness). Other than that, there is the simple list of ingredients*:
- 1 head of organic parsley (either curly or flat, although I prefer flat)
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 2/3 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 TBSP fresh-squeezed organic lemon juice
- Celtic or Himalayan sea salt and black pepper to taste
What you will do:
Simply add the ingredients raw to the food processor, blending on “puree” until it reaches your desired smoothness. If you’re feeling extra saucy (pun intended!), chop the garlic and let sit for 15 minutes before you add it to the food processor in order to allow the anti-bacterial and anti-viral nutrient, allicin, to come to it’s full effect.
It’s that easy! I also have yet to find something it doesn’t taste wonderful on – chicken, vegetables, eggs, zoodles, pork, turkey, kelp noodles, etc.
*Variations:
I played a lot with this recipe so there are also several variations you can try if you have certain food sensitivities, preferences, or just like to get creative in the kitchen:
- For a creamier texture, to make a larger portion (which makes around 2 cups) with the same tasty flavors, or to have the pesto almost as a side-dish itself, instead of a topping, add an avocado.
- If you want to load up on the healthy chlorophyll (which is only one molecule away from human hemoglobin, don’t ya know!), add hemp seed oil. This makes your pesto a beautiful dark green but do note that, to keep the somewhat spicy flavor of the pesto, make sure you keep your ratio of olive oil to hemp seed oil always 1:1.
- Given that coconut oil is also a natural anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-viral, add in a couple tablespoons! (You can see from the above photo how this makes the pesto a bit whiter.)
- Walnuts can also be replaced with Brazil nuts or even Macadamia nuts.
- To sneak more greens in for those vegetable-repulsed loved ones of yours, add one cup of organic spinach.
- Given that Basil also has great antioxidant properties, you could mix some in with the parsley or make your pesto solely from Basil instead.
- Add up to 1 cup of nuts if you want a nuttier flavor.
- If you want a more-oily pesto, you can use up to 1 cup of oil.
Remember to not ruin the healing properties of of this low-carb raw vegan pesto by putting it in a plastic container. I use the 2-cup pyrex bowls with lids you can find here.
Makes around 1-3 cups of pesto, depending on any variation* used.
Prep Time: 5 minutes; Cooking Time: none
If divided into 4 hefty servings, Calories: 369; Protein: 3 grams; Fat: 39.75 grams; Total Carbs: 3.5 grams, Fiber: 1.25 grams, Net Carbs: 2 grams
