It Can Be Both: Spinach and Basil Pesto!

Our lives,
so seemingly small,
ripple out
to the whole universe
as tiny whispers
like the sounds
of butterfly wings,
and the clear voice
of the living truth.
-J.L.D.

It Can Be Both: Spinach and Basil Pesto!

We buy the most beautiful, living basil with its roots intact at our grocery store. We bring the thriving green bunches home and place them in tall glasses with some water (checking daily), and place the glasses on the sunny kitchen windowsill where the basil can bask and continue to grow for weeks.

Pesto is a great way to pack extra greens into our diet. The root of the word "pesto" means "to pound, to crush," herbs and garlic. Traditional pesto is made by crushing basil, garlic, and pine nuts, with olive oil and grated hard cheese in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle, although we use a food processor.

Rex and I have also developed a taste for finely ground collards and kale with just a little olive oil and salt, and a bit of garlic that we add to salads. This makes a hearty alternative to spinach and basil pesto.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups fresh basil, loosely chopped
1 cup fresh spinach, loosely chopped
1 medium sized cloves garlic
4 tablespoons pine nuts
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Real Salt (Himalayan, or Celtic)

Directions:

Wash all greens, and remove tough stems.
Pat dry to remove excess water which would thin down the pesto.
Chop greens and put into dry food processor.
Peel garlic, and squeeze through garlic press. Put into food processor.
Add oil and salt.
Pulse to chop greens.
Add garlic and pine nuts. Pulse to mix. Stop machine as necessary to scrape down sides.
Process to desired consistency.
Serve with tomato dishes, Baby Seed Cakes made into bread, or Veggie Pasta.

A Little Story: It Can Be Both

Rex has said that being flexible and not getting locked in to just one way of doing something can help us to transcend duality. Our culture is so used to asking, "What’s it going to be? Is it this, or is it that?"—insisting that we have to choose between one or the other. Yet we’re coming to learn that it can be both! This holds true with our food. When moving into a raw food diet, it's actually both—partly cooked, partly raw. Both coexist—and as our bodies change, we adjust.

Our dear friend, Rhonda Mattern, who offers classes and mentoring sessions in presence-centered healing and transformation (www.the1thing.net), recently wrote to me about what she's learning about doing things "by the book" as opposed to doing them from the soul.

Here's her insightful offering:

"As we talked the other day, I noticed my tendency to go by the (cook) book when reading your recipes instead of going for the aliveness. When I see a recipe, it often lights up for me. As I see it, that's the inspiration, insight, and aliveness of the soul. It's the soul saying, 'Yes, this is something that's nourishing and pulsating and just right for me right now.'

But then the 'going by the book' part of me (the mind) comes in and says, 'But Dick is allergic to pine nuts,' and all of a sudden, the inspiration's lost, the light has dimmed, and I don't even try the recipe. This is the book (mind) inhibiting my intuition (soul), and it feels dead and lifeless to me.

Our conversation helped me to see this dance of mind and soul in even the simplest things like picking a recipe. And it made me see how looking for the aliveness in things is actually looking from the soul or spirit within me to the spirit (aliveness) in other things.

So, lesson learned (and re-learned and re-learned!) Sometimes you've got to go by the book (screening blood for pathogens before transfusions), and sometimes, you've got to modify what's in the book (substitute pecans for pine nuts) and sometimes you've just got to throw the book away and look for the aliveness!"

Rex and I couldn't agree more with what Rhonda has shared with us. And as we continue to find our daily balance with "it can be both," dipping in and out of "book" and intuition modes, somehow the dance keeps moving forward. Life expands and grows, and we're transported into new realms of unity, where seeming opposites merge to create something unique, filled with joyful expression!