Cilantro Almond Pesto

A few month's ago, we travelled to Philadelphia to celebrate my sister's 6 month old's Annaprashana (First Rice Eating Ceremony). Honestly speaking, a 6 month old doesn't care at all. He was quite happy with his boring feeds every few hours. It's the adults that need to celebrate. My mom and my sister had cooked about 12-15 different things starting with few kinds of stir fries, few vegetable curries, two kinds of fish, two kinds of meat and finishing with sweets, pudding and cake. Oh yes, it was very elaborate. You can probably guess who enjoyed all that in the name of the little baby boy!

One of these many delicacies was a salmon baked with pesto. It was absolutely heavenly! I had to get the recipe and make it myself. And so I did.

I am a big fan of cilantro. And cilantro pesto with a hint of basil and nuts - I am hooked!

This pesto is so easy to make and I can think of a hundred ways (well, many) ways to use it. I keep it in an airtight jar in the freezer for longer shelf life. When I plan to make something with it, I just thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.

You need (to make about 2 cups):

2 cups cilantro (just remove the thick stems)
7 cloves of garlic
⅓ cup of raw almonds
¼ cup of raw walnuts
1 cup basil (about 20-25 big leaves)
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

How:

Put every thing in your food processor and grind it to a smooth texture. Store in an air tight jar and store in your refrigerator or your freezer for longer shelf life.

Breakfast In a Cup

I don't know about you, but everyday morning is a rush time. And time is almost always cut short from breakfast! No time to sit down and have breakfast. Do you also want breakfast to go? This is the perfect recipe. Have it in your car, at the bus stop, train station anywhere. Also, the best part is: make it ahead, refrigerate or freeze, pop it in the microwave for a min and a satisfying breakfast ready in no time.

It has eggs, sausage and cheese in a tortilla cup. Satisfying and fulfilling breakfast!

Also, I'll let you in a little secret- I like this so much, I don't just eat it for breakfast. I love it as an afternoon snacks. Put some ketchup or hot sauce on it and enjoy :)

Doesn't this look pretty?

You can see all the sausage and egg in there. I used spicy italian sausage. If you are in no mood to eat spicy sausage in the morning, no problem, switch with breakfast sausage or even chicken or ham.

You need (for 12 cups):

9 eggs

1½ cup ground sausage (I used spicy italian sausage. You may use breakfast sausage, ground chicken, turkey or even ham)

6 tortillas (I used uncooked flour tortilla. You may use cooked flour tortilla, corn tortilla- for gluten free options)

⅓ chopped cilantro (You may skip this or use parsley or wilted spinach)

½ cup chopped scallions

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used a mix of Cheddar and Jack)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking oil spray 

How:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Brown the sausage in a skillet on medium heat. Drain the excess fat on a paper towel and let it cool. If using breakfast sausage links, brown them and cut into small pieces.

In the meantime, whisk the eggs with scallions, cilantro with salt and pepper and keep aside.

Cut the flour tortillas into halves.

Start the assembly. Oil spray a 12 muffin pan. Place one half of the tortilla or two quarters or three pieces (whichever works for you) in the muffin cup overlapping such that the bottom of the cup is covered. Press the tortillas gently in to the cups. The edges of the tortilla should stick up higher than the muffin cup sides. Oil spray the inside of the tortilla cup.

Equally distribute the sausage in all the cups. Add the egg mixture over the sausage. Top it with cheese.

Bake for 20 min until the eggs are firm. Check with a toothpick.

If you want to store them for later, cool them and put in a large (gallon) freezer bag and store in your refrigerator for the next few days. Put it in the microwave for a min to warm them up.


For more options visit the BREAKFAST page:

Spinach Salad with Chili-Lime-Maple-Cilantro Dressing

It was just one of those days when all you want is a simple salad. I am not a big fan of salads unless I like the dressing. Oh yes, the dressing is very important for me. In fact, I have salads just for the dressing.

Now, I like cilantro, no wait, I LOVE cilantro. So if I want to enjoy a salad, I had to make a cilantro dressing. Got to be a little sweet, little tangy, little heat with a cilantro background. Made chili-lime-maple-cilantro dressing and enjoyed it with a refreshing spinach salad with mandarins and walnuts. Loved it. Loved the dressing!

I put the rest of the dressing to good use later: marinated some chicken with this and some garlic, onions and carrots and baked them (Will post later!). Wonderful dinner served with such ease. This dressing is so easy to put together, that you can make this any day, any time.

You need:

For dressing:

1 cup cilantro (Do not need to pick the leaves, only remove the hard stem).

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1 green chili (Use none or less or more depending on how much heat you like. I personally recommend a little heat, nicely balances the lime and the sweet taste of maple)

2 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

pinch of salt

⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil

For salad:

A handful of fresh baby spinach leaves

1 mandarin, peeled and cut into small pieces

¼ cup toasted chopped walnuts

Few slices of red onion 

How:

Put all the ingredients of the dressing in a blender. Blend it to smooth consistency. Taste for salt and lime. Add more if you like. Drizzle over the spinach with mandarin and walnuts. Enjoy!

If you like cilantro as much as I do, you may also like:

Pico de Gallo and Guacamole

Roasted cornish hens with sweet and savory brown rice

Pico de Gallo and Guacomole

Let me say this first: If you are one of those people who do not like cilantro or have it in your genes to hate cilantro, read no further 'coz cilantro is the star of my post today. Well, and the tomato, and the onion, and the jalapeños, and the lime- Yes, Pico de Gallo!

The perfect mixture of some veggies with loads of cilantro. I can top almost anything with this, but the best is some chips!

You have to make this fresh all the time. Well, you can make ahead a couple of hours, but thats the max, after a while it becomes a little runny with the salt softening all the veggies. If you plan to make ahead, I would suggest not to add the salt until you are ready to serve!

Now just in case, if you have made way too much and want to use it up otherwise, the best route is guacamole! But I am sure there won't be any left, but if by any chance your guests don't show up or something happens such that you are left with some pico de gallo at hand, add some avocado and you have guacamole made in a jiffy!

Guacamole 3 ways:

As I just mentioned, you can add avocado to your pico de gallo with some more lime juice and a little salt and you have guacamole ready in no time.

If you have some more time in your hand, go ahead and add a little bit of cumin powder *. Just the other day I was reading some blog saying that its a mistake to add cumin to guacamole. I got one thing to say, may be the blogger never tasted guacamole with cumin!

Want to be brilliant? Add a little bit of grated garlic along with or without cumin. You got guacamole with wonderful flavor now. Be careful not to go overboard with the garlic, it is added raw and too much of it will not taste good **.

For Pico de Gallo:

1 Jalapeño (remove the seeds and vein to control the heat)

1 Roma tomato (Use a form one, not soft and ripe)

1 small  or half of a medium red onion

1 cup of cilantro

Juice of half a lime

Salt to taste

How: Finely dice all the vegetables and mix with lime juice and salt. It's that easy!

For Guacamole:

1 ripe avocado

¾ cup of Pico de Gallo (Add more or less as you like)

*¼ teaspoon of freshly ground cumin powder (optional)

**1 small clove of garlic (optional)

Juice of half a lime

Salt to taste

How:

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh of the avocado with a spoon. Using the back side of a fork, mash the avocado. This will leave the avocado a little chunky (I like chunky guacamole). Otherwise use the back side of a spoon to mash it to a paste.

Add the lime juice. This will prevent the avocado from turning brown. Don't skimp on the lime juice. My guacamole stayed green for at least 5 hours.

Add Pico de Gallo, garlic, cumin and mix well. Add salt to taste.

To store guacamole, cover it with clear wrap. The clear wrap should touch the guacamole such that there is no air between the guacamole and the wrap. Refrigerate and enjoy later!

If you like cilantro as much as I do, try this Chili-lime-maple-cilantro dressing and Roasted cornish hens with sweet and savory brown rice