Dill and Macadamia Pesto

This recipe is for you Georgia!

Though it’s very hard call, I think dill is my favourite herb; probably followed by tarragon. Deciding on my favourite nut is a bit harder though. Nuts are EVERYTHING. It would probably have to be a tie between macadamia and pine nuts. Of curse they happen to be the most expensive ones!

Many years a go I tried an amazing dill, chili and macadamia pesto at The Tallarook Farmers Market, a tiny town near where I grew up in rural Victoria. It was made by one of the local olive oil growers and the beautiful golden olive oil was certainly a star of their pesto. Ten years later I am still making a version of this delicious recipe. I don’t add chili or parmasen to mine, I think it overpowers the delicate flavours of the dill and macadamias. I find this recipe to be lighter and subtler than traditional pesto.

I have eaten a LOT of pesto in my life. Every summer at Commonground there was an abundance of fresh basil, which of course meant for those hot months we lived off it. Come autumn, I think even the most ardent pesto lovers amongst us were over it. Except my dad that is. I have never met a bigger fan of the stuff. He is also quite famous for his basil pesto and with good reason - it’s delicious. He packs it full of nuts and cheese and so much garlic it would blow the heads off the uninitiated.

When Dad tried my dill pesto recipe, he tried very hard to be positive about it, but he failed. It wasn’t rich enough for him! And in his eyes a pesto without parmesan is not a pesto (he may have a point there). However, this is exactly what I like about this recipe! It’s smooth and delicate. It goes beautifully with eggs, on pasta, with roasted beetroot, as a potatoes salad dressing or on some crusty sourdough with pickled beetroot and goats cheese.

Dill and Macadamia Pesto

Prep time: 20 minutes

Makes: About 1-1/2 cups of pesto

Dietary guide: Gluten Free, FODMAP friendly, Vegan and dairy free

Ingredients

1 cup of firmly packed dill (washed and stems removed)

1 small handful of basil (optional)

1/3 cup of the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can find

1/3 cup of raw macadamia nuts

1 teaspoon of creamed garlic (see recipe below) or garlic oil (FODMAP friendly)

½ teaspoon of salt

A squeeze of lemon juice

Pepper to taste

Method

Place all the ingredients except the herbs in a food processor and process for about 20 seconds – until the nuts are mostly broken up. Add the herbs and process for about 30 seconds. Remove the lid and taste. It may need more salt or garlic depending on your taste. Adjust according.

Occasionally I find my dill is a little bitter. If this is the case, I add a tiny pinch of sugar or maple syrup to balance it out. Scrape down the sides and process again until everything is broken down, but before the pesto has turned into a paste. Taste again to make sure it’s delicious! Store in an airtight container in the fridge. It should last for about five days

How to make creamed garlic: The reason I use creamed garlic instead of chopped up or minced garlic, when a recipe calls for raw garlic is that this method reduces the heat and intensity of raw garlic. This means I can use more garlic and get more garlic flavor into it without it being quite as full on. To cream garlic place 2- clove of nice and fresh peeled garlic in a mortar. Add 1 very generous teaspoon of nice quality salt and grind up with the pestle. It might sound like a lot of salt but the garlic helps to retard its saltiness. Once its pretty smooched up and like a rough paste, add two teaspoons of olive oil and continue grinding and mixing until you have a nice nearly smooth paste. Ready to use. It’s best used in the first couple of hours but you can cover it with oil and keep it for a day if you need to. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can do this on a chopping board using the back of a metal spoon. It will just test you patients a bit more.