Grains and Vegetables With Broccoli Pesto

Earlier this week, Zach and I made a delicious dinner together. We used this recipe from 101cookbooks, which I've been meaning to try forever. I altered it just a little, since it calls for heavy cream (totally unnecessary) and almonds which we didn't have on hand (we substituted pecans, and they were fine). The one other change I made was substituting brown rice for the quinoa. We did this because we had some cooked rice that we wanted to use up, but I think it would be better with quinoa.  Actually, any whole grain would probably work fine, so experiment and see what you like.



Grains and Vegetables 
With Broccoli Pesto
adapted from 101cookbooks.com
makes four servings
3 cups cooked whole grain (quinoa, brown rice, barley, etc)
5 cups raw broccoli florets
4 cloves garlic
2/3 cup nuts, toasted
1/3 cup parmesan (could probably omit and add a little nutritional yeast to make this dairy-free)
2 pinces salt
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
cubed avocado and tomatoes for topping

Add 3/4 of a cup of water and pinch of salt to a saucepan.  Bring to a simmer. Add broccoli, cover and cook for 1 minute. Transfer to a strainer and run under cold water to stop cooking. Set aside. Puree 2 cups of broccoli, garlic, 1/2 cup nuts, parmesan, pinch of salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Add olive oil in a slow stream and puree until oil is well-combined. Mix cooked grain, pesto, and remaining broccoli florets. Top with avocado, tomato, and remaining nuts. Serve.