Pesto Potatoes

Pesto and crispy potatoes are two things I’d certainly eat any day and be pretty content with. When combined, it is the ultimate comfort food and dream brunch side dish. The potato does a delicious job of soaking up the pesto, rather than watering it down, which I think pasta often does. 

The beauty of these pesto potatoes is that they could be served as a side for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! You can also use a pre-made pesto, which I admittedly do to speed things up every now and then.

Ingredients:

Pesto Potatoes: 

6 cups baby potatoes halved, or yellow potatoes, quartered

Pesto:

6 cups fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup pine nuts (or other preferred nut), toasted

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 

1/2 tsp salt 

2 garlic cloves, crushed

For later:

4 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1/2 tsp salt 

Juice of 1 lemon 

1/4 cup fresh chopped Italian parsley 

Steps: 

1.) Boil potatoes in a large pot of heavily salted water until potatoes are tender when poked with a fork. Drain potatoes in a colander. Set aside. 

2.) In a food processor, pulse the pine nuts, nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp salt, and garlic for one minute or until pine nuts are broken down into a paste. 

3.) Add fresh basil to the pine nut paste and pulse twice. Slowly stream in the olive oil. Taste and adjust salt accordingly. 

4.) Add 3 tbsp grapeseed oil to a cast iron pan and heat on medium heat. 

5. Place half of the potatoes on the cast iron, cut-side down, ensuring each potato has room to get crispy. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. 

6.) Cook for 4 minutes or until crispy, then flip and cook for another 3 minutes until golden. Smash each potato down with a spoon against the pan.

7.) Transfer potatoes to a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil to the cast iron pan and repeat Step 6 with remaining potatoes. 

8.) Pour pesto onto potatoes along with the salt, parsley, and lemon juice. Gently toss potatoes in all the goodness until evenly coated.