Original recipe of the week: Raw Hazelnut and Kale Pesto with Goat Cheese

Eat clean but don’t be mean! Eating clean is a massive trend at the moment. The easiest way to do this is through raw cooking. Raw eating and cooking ensures that you get the food that you eat in the rawest, freshest and most natural form, cutting out any added salts and sugars, keeping in all of the nutrients that are often lost through cooking and heating.

Added salt is our biggest bugbear. The most common place or product that salt is added into is preserved food such as antipasti and pestos. Our raw pesto cuts out added salt as it is fresh and maximises on nutrients because of the raw veg and goat cheese.

Use it on fresh pasta or even on a pizza base for an added zing. Why not go crazy and make a cauliflower pizza base instead of the traditional kind? Bet that’s got you thinking!

Raw Hazelnut and Kale Pesto with Goat Cheese 

Serves 3-4
Prep time 5-10 mins

What you will need:

200g fresh kale leaves
50g cauliflower heads
150g raw hazelnuts
80g hard goat cheese
2tbsp cashew butter
½ lemon zest and juice
3 cloves of raw garlic
1 tbsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 4tbsp soy yoghurt

What you need to do:

1. In a food mixer simply blitz together the hazelnuts, garlic cloves, kale and cauliflower. When it is all mixed together and holding slightly stop the mixer and scrap down the sides.
2. Now add in the cheese, butter, lemon, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Blitz it again with a couple of pulses and you should be ready to use it. If you would like a thinner pesto to make a sauce add in 4 tbsp of soy yoghurt and mix to loosen.

Bethany Stone