Rocket Pesto Recipe (Aragula)

Homemade rocket pesto

I have an abundance of rocket ( aragula) growing in my herb garden. As I mentioned yesterday, I harvested lots of it. It is growing faster than I can eat it!

This rocket has a fantastic peppery flavour. Also, it has grown in my organic garden, so no nasty pesticides. It is grown in soil enriched with my  homemade compost and worm tea.

So I had a kitchen sinkful of rocket leftover. I washed it thoroughly.

Then I set out to experiment making rocket pesto.

Here is the recipe that I ended up settling on.

Rocket Pesto

2 cups of chopped rocket, firmly packed

1/3 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup almonds

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

Crush the almonds. I used a rolling pin and put the almonds in a  bag and then hit the bag with the rolling pin!

In a pan toast the almonds with the garlic in a light film of olive oil (extra).

Put the rocket, almonds, garlic, parmesan cheese and the olive oil in a food processor and blend for a brief time, checking until you have the consistency of pesto that you desire.

Put into an airtight container and seal with a little extra olive oil on top. This will ensure that it keeps for longer.

Store in the fridge.

Use stirred through cooked pasta, spread onto grilled meats, use as a pizza topping  or spread on sandwiches.

Simple Living Day

Here are some of the simple living things that I did today :

washed my laundry with homemade laundry detergent

walked 5km  in my neighbourhood for my daily exercise

hung my laundry on the line to air dry

made lunches for  my husband and daughter of homemade bread, banana muffins, and fruit to take to work and school. I wrapped the sandwiches in paper instead of plastic.

harvested my huge crop of rocket (aragula) from my herb garden

enjoyed  a bowl of homemade leek and potato soup with freshly torn rocket in the sunshine for my lunch

ground by hand some rocket into a pesto with improvised mortar and pestle. aka mixing bowl and blunt end of rolling pin!

read my favourite simple living blogs

experimented to create  a homemade rocket, toasted almond and parmesan pesto. Bottled jars of rocket pesto!

listened to my daughter read

cooked a roast dinner from scratch

listed some items of Freecyle to give away

monitored our finances/budget with my husband

talked to my husband about our simple and sustainable plans (in the sunshine)

gave some rocket to my neighbours

cast off  my scarf that I have been learning how to knit

read a chapter of my book from the library “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

What was your simple living day like today?

The simple pleasure of growing and sharing my own herbs

Earlier this year, I started a herb garden.

I have been enjoying fresh herbs grown in my little herb garden. There is mint, basil, coriander and kaffir lime leaves as well as rocket and lemongrass. I like to cook Thai food and many of these herbs are used in my meals that I prepare. Fresh herbs really give a lift to the simple food.

I have just been outside in the dusk, watering my herb garden. My rocket  (aka aragula) is growing profusely.  We have enjoyed it as a rocket and parmesan salad, on sandwiches made with homemade bread, stirred through pasta with olive oil and lemon dressing and of course with some freshly cracked blacked  pepper.

I picked a large bunch of rocket and passed it over the fence to our new neighbour.

It feels so good being able to share food that I have grown myself.

Creating my little herb garden

Now that I no longer live in a townhouse since we left Sydney, I have been keen to start a herb garden.

I’ve tried the herbs in pots thing. In the past giving me something to grow in a pot was the kiss of death for the poor plant.

As we are renting in the short term, I thought a modular raised garden bed might be the best option.

I bought a purpose built raised garden.

Modular pieces are assembled using wing nuts.

Modular raised garden bed is assembled. I have placed it next to the rainwater rank so it can be easily watered .

Lemongrass, Coriander, Basil, Mint, Rocket, Rosemary and Parsley (which turned out to be Celery!)

My herb garden is now complete!

.

I chose mint, basil, coriander and lemongrass as I love to cook Thai food and these herbs are used in Thai cooking. Also Rosemary for my favourite roast lamb and other lamb dishes. I love the peppery taste of rocket in salads and pasta dishes.

I am looking forward to being able to provide my herbs for my cooking picked fresh from my garden.

Growing tomatoes without trying too hard

Last year I tried to grow tomatoes in pots without much success.

This year, take a look at these little ones! I have about 10 healthy tomato plants of a few different varieties. They are over 1 metre tall.

They grew all by themselves. That’s right, i mean that they REALLY grew all by themselves.
I didn’t even have to plant them. I didn’t visit the plant nursery to purchase the seedlings. I didn’t even buy any seeds.
So how did they grow? Surely they didn’t just plant themselves?

Well yes, as a matter of fact, they sprouted themselves, self-sown in the compost that I have made using my compost system, and then Mr Techno had dug the compost back into the soil.

I have watered them occasionally, and staked them up.
When I think of all the hard work which I put into my largely unsuccessful attempt last year to grow tomatoes in pots, and then this year these guys just show up!
They are just starting to change colour, so we will be savouring them soon.

Take a look at the photo directly above and can you see the larger tomato? It is about the size of a man’s fist. Well I took this photo yesterday, and this morning, I went outside to have a look at it and it was GONE! I thought that is must have fallen off the plant, but no, it is nowhere to be seen.

I suspect that a possum has discovered it during the night and has taken it away for a little midnight feast.