We love basil!  We love pesto!  We love quinoa pasta!

Ingredients for pesto sauce:

• 2 qt bag or 1 to 1.5 cups of fresh basil
• 2 cups of fresh spinach
• 1.5 cloves of an elephant garlic or 4 to 6 cloves of regular garlic.  (NOTE: We love lots of garlic in our pasta, if you don’t, then reduce your amount to a few cloves of garlic.
• 2/3 cup of nutritional yeast
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of pine nuts (Note: I sometimes add a few tablespoons of cashews to make it a bit creamier)
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1 fresh tomato (medium)
• salt
• pepper

Veggies to mix in the salad: Today, I just used ONE CUP of steamed peas, but usually I would add lightly steamed broccoli along with it.

Directions:

1. Cook veggie quinoa pasta (I used the curly pasta).
2. First saute the pine nuts and cashews (cashew optional) in a little bit of olive oil until it is brown and toasted.
3. After it is toasted, place the nuts in the food processor with oil, tomato, nutritional yeast, and garlic.
4. Process together until it is smooth.
5. Add spinach and basil, then process again for a few minutes.
6. Add salt ant pepper to taste.
7. Mix sauce with cooked veggie quinoa pasta.
8. Serve hot or cold.
9. Enjoy!