How to Make an Easy 5-Minute Green Onion and Sunflower Seed Pesto Sauce

Author:

John D Lee is a chef and restauranteur living and working in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He's always loved to cook.

5-Minute Green Onion and Sunflower Seed Pesto Sauce

Green Onion Pesto Recipe

Green onion pesto—some call it a poor man's pesto. But it's perfect for those days when pine nuts are a touch pricey or when fresh basil is just out of season and not available.

I actually like it better, but it's sort of a different beast, and although you could use it as a pasta sauce, I like it as a garnish, stirred into mayonnaise, or serve it at the restaurant as a topping for crispy, fried sweet potato fritters.

The itemized recipe as follows does give amounts, but please take the quantities as given with a grain of salt. This is a terrifically easy recipe that consists of a few good ingredients thrown haphazardly into a blender. It's a taste-as-you-go kind of process and one that should be started and finished within about 2 minutes! It goes (almost) without saying as well that this recipe is well open to modifications, interpretations and complete changes in direction!). Leftover pesto will last a few days covered in the fridge.

Ingredients

One big bunch (about 1 pound) of green onions trimmed to remove the white bottoms (you only want the less assertive greens here)
1/4 cup of shelled sunflower seeds
The juice of 1 to 2 limes
1 clove of garlic (don't even bother to peel it—just pop er' into the blender!
1/4 to 1 cup of vegetable oil (or any mild tasting oil) Using less will result in a thicker pesto, one that can be formed as a garnish. Using more oil will result in a more sauce-like pesto—a la traditional basil/pine nut pesto.
Salt to taste

Instructions

Chop the green onions roughly and toss into the blender along with the nuts, the garlic and the lime juice.
Turn on the motor and drizzle in the oil until the desired consistency is reached
Season to taste with salt
The end

Do this once, and you'll see how open to adaption this technique/recipe is.

Variations

switch the green onions with cilantro
try it with olive oil and lemon
try it with different nuts
mix it with sour cream for veggie dip
toss it on hot pasta
keep it thick and spread on toasted baguettes for sandwiches
toss it with simply steamed new potatoes
use it for a 10-minute dinner as a coating for simply broiled white fish fillets

There are endless variations. So good, so easy.