PUMPKIN SEED PESTO with grilled fish or vegetables

by:

June 3, 2020

Obviously you were overly ambitious over the holidays, you carved pumpkins and squashes and you scouped out the seeds, you rinsed them, you cleaned them, you dried them and now you have them. Ok, that was not you, but perhaps you bought a bag of pumpkin seeds laying in the back of your pantry neglected and unused. Either way, we have seeds, and we will make seed-icious pesto. And you know what is really cool? Roasted pumpkin with pumpkin seed pesto. So play time has arrived, and in the kitchen we shall play. 

But so YEAH obviously you can use reguarl pesto for this. Once you have the pesto you can use it many ways, either as a marinate or as a dip, a spread, or even a creamy dreamy sauce.

Ingredients

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 cup cilantro, basil, spinach or arugula or a combination of thereof 

juice from one lemon

fish or…..chicken, shrimp, pasta, mushrooms, tofu, zucchini, ROASTED PUMPKIN!!

fresh bread crumbs (optional)

Instructions
Toss the pumpkin seeds with a little oil, sprinkle with salt and spread on a sheet pan and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 -15 minutes, stirring once. They should be puffed and lightly golden. Allow them to cool, then combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth with a slight chunk. Yes this is not conflicting information, smooth but slightly chunky, not pureed and smooth baby food, a little speckle, a little bite, and little crunch. Season to taste with salt. You can use the pesto as a marinade, or a finishing sauce. You can also mix the pesto with a little mayo for a pesto aioli, and you can heat it with a little cream to make a pasta sauce or a sauce for any vegetable. 
  1. To use as a marinade for fish. Season your fish lightly with salt and pepper, sure why not? give it a squeeze of lemon too.
  2. Now you can spread your pumpkin seed pesto directly on the fish in its pure form, OR you can stir in 2 tablespoons mayonnaise into the pesto. You could also, stir in some fresh bread crumbs into the pesto. Then however, you have proceeded with your pesto, spread a thin layer on your fish.
  3. Bake, grill, cook it anyway, you want it.
  4. You can also cook the fish plain, and serve the pumpkin seed pesto mayonnaise as a tartar sauce on the side or make a creamy sauce.
  5. And yes, yeah yeah yeah, you can use basil pesto in the same manner.

Photo and Food Styling by Mimi Newman