Written by: Claire Swetlin
Cooking and eating good food is one of the best things about being alive. And while the first step is cultivating your garden space, the second step is harvesting and cooking your food! The way the food system in the US is built means that unless you actively try to maintain a relationship with food, you can lose sight of what is happening behind the scenes. When our food is grown with chemicals we can’t pronounce, by people three states over who don’t have access to healthcare, with language on the packaging that we don’t understand, it can be hard to stay interested in what you eat. But it is vital for every social movement and every individual's health. Many scholars and activists believe that the first step in liberation for all starts with our food system. So this series, the Food System Series, will touch on many aspects of this struggle. There will be how-to guides, behind the scenes explorations, label explanations, activist spotlights, seasonal recipes and more!
Let’s Start With Basil!
Herbs and spices get a bad rep. They are portrayed as extra things you can just throw in at the end, or neglect all together. But herbs and spices actually make or break a dish. They can be expensive to buy fresh each week, so I suggest growing them yourself! I will provide a more in-depth post on herbs, spices, how to grow them and when to use them later, but for now, I am going to focus on basil, my favorite herb. Basil is my favorite because I absolutely love pesto. I make pesto about once a month and I can do this because of my basil plant(s).
You can go to almost any grocery store and buy a basil plant for about $5. Take your plant home and place it either indoors by a window or outdoors in a pot or in the ground. For me, keeping my plants indoors in pots or outdoors on a balcony in pots has been the best because that way you have to worry less about rodents and critters snacking on your plants. Basil likes to stay pretty moist so I suggest watering your indoor plants about twice a week and your outdoor plants about once a week. Since you are not watering your plant each day, when you do water them, give them a good soak. Take your plant somewhere where water can run off, a balcony, deck or in the sink all work fine. Then, slowly pour about 3-4 cups of water on the plant and let the excess water drain off for about an hour of two. This will make sure that the roots get moist because the water has a chance to percolate to the bottom of the pot. Short, surface-level watering means that the roots are less likely to get watered and they are the most important part. Plants absorb a majority of their nutrients and water through their roots, so think of it not as watering the plant but watering the roots.
Now, you have your plant, you know how to water it. But how do you take care of the plant? You can prune your basil to get the most out of your plant, or you can leave it alone and still get a decent haul of basil leaves. Basil is one of the best beginner plants because basil is super resilient. It’s hard to overwater it and if you mess up on pruning, the stem will just grow back! Kevin from Epic Gardening does an excellent job of explaining how to prune your basil plant, you can check his video out here!
Some Tips:
When you are getting ready to harvest some of the leaves, cut them off as close to the main stem as possible. This will allow for better growth back on the leaf.
Plants grow in a unique way that you can use to produce more food. If you cut a stem off, two more will grow in its place. Once you watch the video above and see the best way to do this, I suggest trying it out on your basil plant. The more stems and branches you have, the more leaves you will get off of your plant.
As Kevin mentions in the video above, you can actually cut off a stem of your basil plant and use it to start a second plant!
If the leaves of your plant start to turn yellow, this is a good sign that you might be overwatering your plant.
Make your basil last longer by not letting it flower! If your plant starts to flower, it will transition to seed-producing mode meaning its energy and nutrients will go towards the seeds and not producing more leaves. To prevent flowering, cut each stem back to two to four leaves per stem before the stems have more than eight pairs of leaves. Each stem you cut back will form two to four new, harvestable branches in three to four weeks.
Now We Can Talk About Pesto
So you collected a haul of basil leaves and are wondering what to do with them. Fear not, because the answer is absolutely delicious!
You can use pesto in a range of dishes:
Use it on your pasta
Add some to a homemade pizza
Make pesto risotto (my personal favorite)
Us it on a salad
Add flavor to a sandwich
Use it in a soup
Add as a topping to roasted veggies
Top your chicken or salmon with a dollop of pesto
Pesto is also easy to alter for dietary restrictions:
Vegan Pesto: just don’t add cheese, or add nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor
Nut allergy: replace pine nuts with sunflower seeds or extra cheese
Lactose Intolerant: don’t add cheese
*This recipe is about enough for a week, but I suggest making a bigger batch and then freezing some in ice cube trays for later in the month. After a couple of days, you can take them out of the trays and put them into a larger freezer bag. When you want pesto, just take one or two cubes out and let them defrost in a bowl. I usually preemptively take out 4 cubes on Mondays and Thursdays so I don’t have to defrost some every time I want to use it.
*This recipe is also the vegan version with no cheese, if you want cheese I suggest adding ½ cup of parmesan cheese at the very end. Only blend for a short amount of time.
You will need:
½ cup pine nuts (cashews and almonds also work)
2 cups of basil (stems trimmed off)
Pinch of salt
2 large garlic cloves (life hack: there’s almost no such thing as too much garlic)
½ cup olive oil
Optional: 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice, 2 oil-soaked sundried tomatoes, ½ cup parmesan or pecorino cheese.
Instructions:
Blend the garlic, pine nuts, salt and basil in a blender or food processor.
Once the ingredients are well mixed, about 1 min, add the olive oil and blend again.
The mixture should be smooth, if you want a more oily or smooth pesto, add up to another ¼ cup olive oil.
Lastly, add the cheese if so desired. Blend for a very short amount of time, just until it is well mixed in.
Pour enough for 2-4 days into a jar or Tupperware.
Pour the remaining pesto into ice cube trays and freeze for two days.
After two days, take them out of the tray and place them in a larger freezer bag.
The pesto will last in your freezer for about 2 months, and in your fridge for about 2-4 days.
Enjoy Your Homemade Pesto!!!