Pesto pasta is one of my all-time favourite foods. With limited cooking skills and a long way from home, it was all I consumed at University. I once ventured into cooking fish fingers but I forgot about them and burnt them to a crisp! Hence, boiling a saucepan of water for pesto pasta was within my comfort zone of cooking! Asda’s versions of red and green pesto with pasta and frozen veg (it could be thrown into the same pot of boiling water at the same time!) were my staple lunch and dinner, it was quick, filling and required limited chef skills. Recently I found myself craving a big bowl of comfort in lightning speed. Our freezer is also on the verge of breaking and I had a lot of peas that suddenly needed using (and Brussel sprouts from Christmas) and found myself experimenting!! This experiment turned out very delicious and I hope you’ll agree!

Ingredients

Serves 2
Pesto sauce
1 cup frozen peas
juice of 1 lemon
Small handful basil
1 large handful of spinach
Trunk of a head of broccoli, grated
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/4 cup unsweetened plant milk, I used soya
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
pepper to taste

Additional ingredients to pan fry in veg stock and water
Brussel sprouts, peeled and cut into halves
Broccoli, cut into small florets
Plum tomatoes, whole

Instructions
To make the pesto sauce, put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Part way through, scrap down the sides of the processor with a spatula.
Add to the additional ingredients and pasta. Give it a good stir and serve!

Other suggestions
Pesto can be added to pasta, drizzled on salad or over a jacket potato … anything! Bonus points if you can serve it with extra veggies too!