Homemade Pesto Sauce – Gallstone Friendly Recipe
Garlic and Basil Pesto Sauce – Gallstone and Gallbladder Friendly Recipe
I think one thing everyone thinks when the doctor tells you have to eat healthy is that it isn’t supposed to taste good. By my doctors own words she said “eat a bland diet”. Gee, thanks that’s soooo helpful. I’ve learned more about eating with gallstones by reading online than from my doctor. In fact they didn’t even set me up with a dietician or give me a recommended diet. Well that’s enough about that, truth is I’m trying to find creative ways to eat healthy AND tasty.
This garlic and basil pesto is sure to do the trick. I need to disclose that I do use olive oil in the recipe. Some people can’t eat any sort of fat when fighting gallstones. I’m going to be sure to include some variations so you can modify to your taste and what ever latitude your gallstones will give you.
Gallstone Friendly Pesto Sauce Ingredients
All of these things are going into either a blender or emersion blender (you know how much I love the emersion blender), so you can rough chop all of them.
- 1 bunch fresh organic basil
- 1/8 c red onion
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 c red pepper
- 1/4 c olive oil
- 1/4 c nuts – pine nuts or pistachios are my favorite
- 1/4 c Romano or Parmesan cheese
Cooks Tools
- Emersion Blender or:
- Blender or:
- Food Processor
- Good knife (Shun is my favorite)
- Chopping board
- Dish towel
- If using the emersion blender, you need a deep cup that the nozzle fits in.
Step 1 – Putting it Together – Garlic Basil Pesto – Gallstone Friendly
- Rough chop all the ingredients
- I just basically tore off the leaves of the basil and even kept some stems (it gets blended up after all, the more nutrients the better).
- I would put your onion, peppers, cheese and nuts in the bottom, then the basil then drizzle the oil on top.
- If you’re using an emersion blender hard to drizzle in the oil so just dump it in, it’s not going to hurt it one bit.
- Blend it up until the consistency is similar to a thick salad dressing.
Step 2 – Storing the Pesto
- It’s always best the night you make it, but if you’re a meal prep kind of person it will last for a few days in the fridge.
- I like to store it in a mason jar because I can easily see what’s in it, and also I just love mason jars.
- If you end up not using it right away then you can store it in a freezer safe container for about a month. Anything longer I would say it wouldn’t be as tasty.
- I recently came across some dair free butter so you could mix it with that and then roll it and make basil “non-butter”
Serving Gallstone Friendly Pesto Sauce
- If you’ve seen my other posts you can see how nuts I’ve been about my new spiralizer. So my first obvious go to is to make spiralized zucchini and toss it in there.
- If you are able to eat meat with your gallstones, I’ve warmed it up in a pan and spooned it over fish or chicken with lemon (highly recommended, extremely tasty).
- Roast some potatoes and toss it in a few tablespoons of the pesto to serve.
- Yes, pasta of any kind if you’re able to eat pasta with your gallstones.
- I’ve also added it to balsamic vinegar and drizzled it over sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. If you have guests that can eat dairy around add some nicely sliced mozzarella and sliced red onion then drizzle the garlic pesto balsamic over it. You will have friends for life, no joke it’s #amazing.
Variations of Gallstone Friendly Garlic Pesto Sauce
- Substitute water for the oil, or use coconut oil.
- Use fat free cheese.
- Use avocado instead of oil (talk to your doctor because the amount of ones oil intake with gallstones is incredibly individualized)
- add parsley or other herbs like oregano.
