Cilantro Pesto

Let me just tell you, I am hooked on making pesto, as well as eating it.  I made that basil batch that I told you about in July, and then I made another batch and froze those jars.  I have already gone through almost a whole jar.  I read somewhere that you can use it wherever and whenever you would use butter.  I have tried it on toast (yum!) and sandwiches.  Most of it has been used up with pasta.  Princess of one-pot meals (I can't take the title of Queen), I cooked up some noodles, drained them and then added pesto, a can of chicken, and some frozen peas.  I moistened it up with some (fat-free) sour cream.  Cottage cheese works, as does cream cheese.  I did a similar thing another night, only instead of adding chicken, I added some smoked salmon and also some smoked cheese.

Yesterday I bought some bunches of cilantro at the store and came home and whipped those into pesto.  I rinsed a bunch, stuffed it in the processor, added 1/2 cup toasted almonds (no use chopping them) and a bunch of spoonfuls of minced garlic.  No point in measuring garlic with teaspoons or tablespoons.  I mixed that up, then added 3 TBSP olive oil.  In the first batch I added some Parmesan cheese, but I thought that added a salty flavor, so when I worked on the second bunch, I didn't add any cheese.  I had read somewhere that if you add salt to it now, it will just turn a very dark color.  What's wrong with that?  I don't know, but I left it out.  Two bunches of cilantro made three jam jars (4 oz.?) of pesto.

What will I do with cilantro pesto?  Spread it on fish, chicken, pizza, pasta, and sandwiches; add it to soups, dips and sauces; put it on nachos; add it to a salad.  Wherever you use cilantro, you can put in some of this pesto.  Think of it in some beans on a winter night, or in some hot stew in the crock pot.  It will be that reminder of summer when you are feeling bad about dark winter nights.