Picky and Healthy

As I mentioned yesterday my friends and I had a picnic in Prospect Park for the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert.

My one friend is a vegetarian and I’m trying to be mostly a vegan so I thought I’d whip up a great vegan dish.

I stopped at the Greenmarket on the way home from my run and bought basil, corn, and a red pepper. Then I stopped at the grocery store and bought couscous.

The first thing I did was make pesto. I love making pesto. In fact, it was one of the first things I made on this blog.

Since I didn’t post the recipe last time, and I couldn’t find the recipe I normally use, I decided to make up my own.

Maggie’s Pesto

- 4 cups packed fresh basil

- 1 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 cloves garlic

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. I put in about half the basil and drizzled in the olive oil 1/4 cup at a time, but I was just going along to see what would taste best. But I see no reason why you couldn’t just combine it all at the start.

Like last time I made frozen pesto hearts to use in the future.

Then I got to work on my salad.

I made the box of garlic and olive oil couscous I bought and then put it in the fridge to cool off.

Here’s what else you’ll need:

- 1/2 pint of grape tomatoes cut into quarters
- 1/2 red pepper
- 6 green onions chopped

- kernels from 3 ears of corn

Combine all of the above and then mix with about half a cup of pesto or more to taste.

Of course I didn’t take a picture of the finished product but I can assure you it was delicious.

I might be making more soon (there were no leftovers) and if I do I’ll take a picture then.

All the food my friends brought to the picnic was delicious. There was a watermelon, feta, and mint salad and a black bean, corn, tomato, and lime juice salad.

Plus jumbo pretzels and a container of Nutella. Delicious.