Homemade Almond Pesto + Simple Flatbread

Recently I’ve tried my hand at making homemade sauces and marinades. This is something I really got into after Mila was born when Dan and I went on the Whole30. Most store bought sauces and marinades have added sugar in them so we had to make a ton of things from scratch during that time. While we are not fully on the Whole30 or following any diet at the moment, Dan and I have made some small changes in efforts to eat healthy at home. Starting with making our own marinara sauce, Asian inspired marinades, and pesto! It has been really fun and I’ve been recipe testing along the way to share them all with you as we go.

Turns out making some of these homemade is pretty simple and a lot more flavorful even! Plus, with this pesto recipe, I love that I can tweak it how I want by swapping some ingredients to fit our family’s tastebuds. Pesto is typically made by blending pine nuts and basil together with spices, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Since our family loves almonds (and we always have an abundance on hand) I decided to swap the pine nuts for almonds. In addition to the basil I added a few handfuls of spinach to boost up the nutritional value and leafy greens. Spinach is so great because it has such a mild taste, you can add it to a lot! I love chopping it up and adding it into my meatballs or turkey burgers and of course smoothies!

With this batch of pesto you can toss it with pasta, add it on top of chicken, or make tasty flatbreads like we did! Mila and I have been making flatbreads together when Dan works late. They are so easy and gets us both in the kitchen together using our hands rolling out the dough. Mila LOVES working with dough! I use store bought pizza dough and we top them with whatever I can find in my fridge! Let me know if you try out our Almond Pesto. Find the recipe below …

Almond Pesto

What You Need

1/2 cup raw almonds (You can pretty much use any nut you like here. Just be sure to use unsalted and raw nuts so you can control the flavor as much as possible)

1 cup shaved Parmesan (Because pesto is made from minimal ingredients it is important to use the best. Id say splurge on a nice thick slice of Parmesan and shave large chunks for this recipe if you can! Of course any type of Parmesan will work ;)

3-4 peeled garlic cloves (We LOVE garlic in this house I use three or four large garlic cloves. You can start with two and taste to see if you want more or not)

3 cups fresh basil leaves

3 cups fresh spinach (You can skip the spinach and do 6 full cups of basil or use a different leafy green like kale!)

1 cup olive oil

hearty pinch of salt + pepper

*To make the flatbread use store bought pizza dough, top it with the pesto, cheese, and whatever else you’d like. Follow the baking directions on the pizza dough package.

What You Do

• First roast the almonds in a fry pan on the stove on low heat. Shake them around a couple times. Once you start to smell the almonds and they turn a darker brown they are ready. This only takes about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.

• Add all your ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor or blender.

• Pulse your ingredients until they are roughly chopped. Then slowly add the olive oil as you pulse the ingredients together.

• Store your pesto in an air tight container for up to one week and top it on everything!