No Oil Pesto

Tofu ricotta stuffed shells, Happy Herbivore “sausage” topped with a no oil pesto sauce

My challenge this weekend (well, one of them) was to create a pesto-like sauce without the oil.  It’s something I’ve been tossing about for a while, but with the tofu ricotta recipe perfected recently, it became necessary–and so did stuffed shells.

The quest for jumbo shells was a three store journey… after which I decided that trying to find whole grain ones would be futile.  Enriched pasta in hand (though I have to imagine somewhere, someplace whole grain ones exist), I went home to stuff some shells with tofu ricotta.  There was left over marinara in my fridge, I thought to myself, if the pesto sauce didn’t turn out.  The marinara is in the freezer now… the sauce turned out great.

No Oil Pesto Sauce

1 packed cup basil leaves

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 tablespoons miso

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 cup walnuts halves

2 cups chopped spinach

• In a blender, combine the broth, basil, miso, yeast and walnuts.  Blend until somewhat smooth and the walnuts are well chopped.
• In a small sauce pan add the blended mixture and stir in the spinach.
• Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
• Serve hot with your favorite pasta dish.