How To Make Minty Pea Pesto with Rice and Radishes
A delightful variation to the Italian classic sauce! This pea pesto with a subtle influence of cashews goes well with the delectable rice and radishes.
Serves:
Ingredients
- 1½cupsarborio/short grain brown riceor any other variety of brown rice
- 2cupsfresh peasfrom approximately 1 ½ lb peas in pods or a 10-ounce package frozen peas
- 2clovesgarlicsmall, coarsely chopped
- ⅓cupraw cashews
- ⅓cupParmesangrated
- 2tbspmint leavespacked (more to taste)
- ½lemonuiced (more to taste)
- ½tspsea salt
- ⅓cupolive oil
- ½cupreserved riceor pasta cooking water, or plain water if necessary
- 6pcsradishesend removed and sliced into super thin rounds
Instructions
Rice:
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Bring a big pot of water to a boil, dump in rinsed brown rice and boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
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Reserve 1 cup cooking water for the pesto as you drain the rice. Return the rice to the pot and cover. Let the rice steam in the pot for 10 minutes.
Pesto:
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Bring a small saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add peas and cook for 2 minutes (they should be tender to the bite but retain a bit of structure). Drain peas and let them cool down for a few minutes.
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Set aside about ½ cup of your cooked peas.
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Whirl the remaining peas in a food processor with garlic, cashews, Parmesan, mint, lemon juice and salt until smooth, (about 2 to 3 minutes), scraping down the bowl as necessary.
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While the machine is running, drizzle in the olive oil. Taste, and add more mint, lemon juice and/or salt if desired.
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The pesto will be very thick, so stir in up to ½ cup cooking water to thin it out if you are tossing the pesto with rice (or pasta).
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Mix the pesto into the cooked brown rice and season with salt to taste.
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Stir in the leftover peas and the sliced radishes. Sprinkle more grated Parmesan cheese over the dish if desired.
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Serve warm.
Nutrition
- Calories: 683.17kcal
- Fat: 28.71g
- Saturated Fat: 5.91g
- Monounsaturated Fat: 17.60g
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 3.76g
- Carbohydrates: 89.62g
- Fiber: 7.03g
- Sugar: 5.21g
- Protein: 17.75g
- Cholesterol: 8.43mg
- Sodium: 417.76mg
- Calcium: 206.97mg
- Potassium: 520.49mg
- Iron: 3.95mg
- Vitamin A: 59.06µg
- Vitamin C: 34.64mg
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