Last week, I was trying new things for upcoming recipes for my Guardian column, when I came across a bag of kale on special offer at Waitrose – 75p for a massive 200g bag.
Anyway, I used a scant handful of it for a recipe, and this evening decided to make the rest into kale pesto…
Ingredients (makes 14 portions – freezing the rest in ice cube trays!)
200g kale
150ml sunflower oil
150ml water
30ml lemon juice
80g grated strong hard cheese
1 chilli
Basically…. De-head the chilli and slice it. Stuff as much kale as you can fit into your blender (you can add more later). Throw in the chilli, grated cheese, oil, lemon and water and blend vigorously until the kale has vanished into a vivid green pulp. Turn the blender off, add any remaining kale, and blend again.
Store in a clean sealed jar with extra oil on top, and keep in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze in ice cubes.
I served mine straight over spaghetti with a pinch of extra chilli and lightly toasted breadcrumbs – recipe for THAT delicious dinner to follow.
Also looking forward to spreading some on toast, topping with cheese, and grilling lightly for lunch… I’ll keep you posted on that one too…
AND I reckon it would make a great spread to top a pizza base, topped with tomatoes and cheese…
Costs worked out at Sainsburys, apart from the kale (Waitrose) and correct at time of writing.
200g kale 75p. 3l oil £4 (150ml 30p). 250ml lemon juice 60p (30ml 7p). 200g hard strong cheese £2.30 (80g 92p) 10 bird eye chillies 75p (1 chilli 8p). Total cost of ingredients used: £2.12 Makes 14 portions of kale pesto at 15p each.
Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe