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If your herb garden is in need of raiding, making pesto is one of the best ways to go about it. Traditionally, pesto includes a hard cheese such as parmesan; leaving it out really lets the vibrancy if the herbs and creaminess of the pinenuts shine through. The flavour doesn’t get duller without dairy. My boyfriend now prefers this to regular pesto!

If you’ve never made your own pesto before, you gotta try it. The freshness of the herbs boosts the flavour way beyond anything you can buy in a store, and it can be prepared in a minute or two. Small effort, big rewards.

What can you do with your stash of pesto? Spread it on bread, mix it with pasta, stir through steamed vegetables, use it as a salad dressing, a pizza topping or a dip, dollop it on top of portobello shrooms or a baked potato.

Tweak the flavour to your liking with: a clove of garlic, a little lemon zest or some nutritional yeast if that’s your thing. Lightly toast the pinenuts if you want a little extra creaminess.

Easy 3-Herb Pesto

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups fresh basil, loosely packed
1/2 cup fresh mint, loosely packed
1/4 cup Italian parsley, loosely packed
1/4 cup pinenuts
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

What to do:

Blend herbs, pinenuts, sea salt and 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a food processor until pinenuts are in small pieces and everything is very well combined.

Add another tbsp olive oil. Blend well, stopping to scrape down the sides a couple of times. Add remaining tbsp olive oil. Blend until very well combined, again stopping to scrape down the sides.

Store in an airtight container. Pour a little extra olive oil on top before refrigerating your pesto, to keep it looking nice and green.

Makes around 1/4 cup of pesto.