Among all the food we enjoyed at Yasodhara ashram, the almond spread was everyone’s favorite and quickly became a popular topic of conversation during my stay.
When I got home and tried to recreate it I found it quite challenging to replicate.
I knew there was:
- almonds
- basil
- honey
- lemon juice?
Along with it’s characteristics:
- sweet
- slight zing at the end
- earthy
After 4 tries over a two week period and a life filled with dull tasting almond spread in every meal I had, I finally nailed the recipe.
(the secret’s in the apple cider vinegar)
Soaked almonds are also a must for this recipe. Soaking the almonds increases the enzyme content, and makes them easier to work with. I didn’t want to end up with a nut butter and soaking prevented that from happening.
Just look at how BIG that garlic bulb is. Holy moly.
Had to share.
PS: I used a regular sized clove for the recipe.
- 2 cups fresh basil – worked out to be about 3 (40g) packs of basil
- ¾ cup raw almonds, soaked over night, drained and rinsed
- ¾ cup fresh parsley
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon raw honey
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Place all ingredients in the bowl of your processor and pulse with the “S” blade just until chunky. You can either continue processing for a smoother spread; similar to pesto, or stop while there’s still chunks of almonds. I like it a bit chunky.
- The spread is thick, still relatively chunky, and served best with crackers, a slice of fresh bread, or combined with a simple warm bowl of quinoa and fresh herbs.
View Nutritional Information (once on page scroll down)
This recipe makes quite a bit of spread, so I kept 1/2 of it in a mason jar in the fridge and the other half in a plastic bag for 2 days from then when I’d realize I polished off the fridge batch safe keeping.
So delicious and simple. Juust the right recipe to welcome what is bound to be a hectic week!
Would it be possible to substitute other nuts, or even seeds, like pumpkin or sunflower? I guess I could give it a try myself. Thanks so much.
I’m sure you could! Sunflower seeds would be awesome!
so you mean to soak the amonds without dehydrating them? just use them still wet? :)
Yep, just soak them, drain them, since, drain and you’re good to go!
I used this as pesto for spaghetti squash. Thank you for another incredible recipe!
Yum, that sounds delicious! Glad you liked the recipe, Laura!
This sounds amazing! A real must try!
I’ve been looking at your blog for a bit over a week now and I kept seeing these balls of green stuff on the side and wondering what it was. So glad I clicked because it looks fabulous! I’ll be trying this once basil comes back into season here. How do you think it will do on pasta?
Great blog here. I’ll be following you along your journey!
Hi Holly – glad you like the recipe! I’ve had the spread on pasta a bunch of times and love it! It’s really good if you mix it up with some avocado and serve it with pasta. Mmm!
All your reciepts sound soo good, do you know how many calories are in them?
Hi Kathryn – thanks! I’ve begun posting the nutrition information for each of my new recipes. If the nutrition facts were calculated, they will be at the bottom of the recipe either as a link to the full nutrition facts table, or written in text. If you find a recipe on my site that doesn’t have the details, feel free to input the ingredients to http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php to get an idea of the details of the specific recipe. I hope that helps!
Leanne, where have you been all my life? Had I known that eating healthy could taste this good, I’d have changed my diet YEARS AGO! I’m eating this on brown rice right now. Yum!
haha I’ve been right here, right here! I’m so happy you liked the spread. Gosh, I could eat the whole batch in one go. That stuff is my FAVORITE! :)
Hilary! I love this recipe, Especially because of the great flavors you have used. Just wanted to know if I could use something else instead of apple cider vinegar.
Your blog is interesting. Glad to have found through foodbuzz. Already buzzed a coule of your recipes.