Meghan's Magnificent Asparagus Pesto

Once again, this is a Meghan Telpner recipe that worked out beautifully!  When I read that she had made an amazing sounding version of asparagus pesto with the fat coming from wonderful seeds like sunflower and hemp and only a tiny bit of olive oil, I knew I wanted to try it.

I pretty much followed Meghan's recipe to the letter.  The only change I made was to add some nutritional yeast.  I had planned to use it as a spread for crackers, but after tasting it I decided to make some pasta with lots of veggies and beans and toss it in this yummy concoction.  I saved the rest for crackers.

Here's what I did...

I lightly steamed some lovely Ontario asparagus that I'd bought at the Sherway Gardens Farmers' Market.  Then I cooled them and plopped them into my Vitamix blender.

 Added hemp seeds and Sunflower seeds.

Added Dijon mustard, a clove of garlic and a little bit of olive oil.

Added Celtic sea salt, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

Blended it until smooth, tasted it and decided it needed a touch more sea salt and thought I'd add a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast just for fun :-)

Then I sautéed 2 sliced onions, 2 sliced red bell peppers, 1 sliced yellow bell pepper and 2 Thai bird chilies in some coconut oil.  Added some cooked kidney beans and cooked chickpeas.  Meanwhile, I cooked some whole grain spaghetti.  When the pasta was done, I tossed everything together with about 1/2 cup of the pesto and 2 ladles of pasta water.  This was absolutely delish.!!!