I don’t know what it is about rainy weather, but it always has me craving a pile pasta with bright and fresh veggies and flavors. So with an overripe avocado found in the back of my fridge, I decided to make my lemony avocado pesto. It’s quick and easy to put together and that’s my favorite kind of food!

As a note, the avocado is mainly added for texture and with the amount of lemon juice added, it’s not going to go brown quickly.

Unlike other pesto recipes, this one is vegan because I don’t put any cheese and I use toasted almond slivers instead of pine nuts or walnuts because I think the sweeter flavor from the nut compliments the fattiness of the avocado and tangy lemon much better.

Lemony Avocado Pesto Pasta

Ingredients

• 2 cups loosely packed Italian/sweet basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• zest and juice from 1 lemon
• 2 stalks green onion (scallions)
• 1 small avocado, fully ripened/soft
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 palmfuls of unsalted toasted almond slivers
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 pound pasta (I used linguine)
• 1.5 cups cherry/grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• Arugula/wild rocket
• Additional almond slivers for garnish

Steps

1. Put basil, garlic, lemon juice and zest, green onions, avocado, olive oil, toasted almond slivers, salt, and black pepper into the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Boil pasta according to directions on package until cooked. When you remove the pasta from the boiling water, save some of the water in a cup for use.
3. Place in the cooked pasta, sliced tomatoes, and avocado pesto into a large mixing bowl and toss until the pasta is well coated. If the sauce isn’t mixing well, add in a bit of the pasta water a little bit at a time to help loosen it up.
4. Serve pasta on a bed of arugula and garnish with additional almond slivers.
5. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.

You can also use this pesto as a sandwich spread! If you’re watching your carbs, you can absolutely replace the pasta with spiralized veggies instead. You can also top off the pasta with crumbled crispy bacon, baked chicken, sauteed shrimp, or grilled salmon if you’re a meat eater and want to have animal protein.