Food Recipe: Homemade Celery Leaves Pesto

I  usually buy many stalks of celery every week because I juice them along with cucumber,  two carrots, and one-half apple. This veggie juice helps detoxify your body. Unfortunately, I always end up with so much leftover celery leaves. I  like them but my mom and other friends do not particularly like the bitter taste of the leaves when they are juiced so I usually throw them away. Then I  decided, “Why don’t I make homemade celery leaves pesto? I’ll experiment.”  Well, it turned out nice even if I do say so myself. I put it on my whole wheat sandwich as a special spread, add it to my other vegetable dishes, and use it as a side dish and as a dressing for salad.  Making celery leaves pesto is easy and best of all, you can come up with your own recipe as well. Be imaginative and add other ingredients that you like. Bon appétit.

 

Suggested ingredients

• 1 to 1 ½ cup of finely chopped celery leaves
• 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon of finely chopped ginger
• Salt and pepper to taste

I wanted to add fresh chopped basil leaves but I ran out.

The measurements are not exact and you can adjust them depending on your taste. If you do not suffer from high uric acid levels, you may add crushed peanuts or almonds, or any healthy variety of nuts. Just use unsalted and uncooked ones to minimize the sodium.  I also added about a teaspoon of Chia seeds that I bought last year and I still have some leftovers. Feel free to experiment with adding other healthful ingredients.