Craving a creamy and flavorful dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner? We’ve got just the thing. This keto kale pesto salad is a versatile and refreshing dish that’s sure to satisfy your taste buds and leave you wanting more.

The best part is that it’s healthy, made with ingredients suitable for your low-carb keto diet. It’s also straightforward to make, only requiring ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen pantry. This recipe will only take you about 30 minutes to whip up and is enough for six servings, so you can store some for later.

How Do You Make Pesto Sauce?

Many home cooks opt for store-bought pesto that they can simply pour over their salads, bread, or pasta. While there’s no problem with this, you might want to try making homemade pesto yourself for a more vibrant and fresh flavor.

Making your own pesto sauce also allows you to control its consistency by adding or reducing olive oil, whether you want it smooth and runny or a little thicker and creamier.

Home cooks commonly make pesto sauce by tossing all the ingredients into a blender. But to achieve better consistency, we recommend using a food processor instead. This will allow you to blend all the ingredients evenly, creating a smooth sauce to top your dishes with.

To make your own pesto sauce, you only need a couple of ingredients. How much of each ingredient you need will depend on how many servings you’re looking to make. For 6 servings of pesto sauce, prepare the following:

• ¼ cup of pine nuts/ pecans
• 1 cup of fresh sage leaves
• 1 cup of fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup of olive oil
• ¼ cup of grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

This pesto sauce recipe only requires five steps, which will take you less than 10 minutes to complete:

1. Toast the pine or pecan nuts in a sauté pan until it is golden and fragrant.
2. Toss your pine or pecan nuts, sage leaves, basil leaves, and grated parmesan cheese into the food processor.
3. Pulse the ingredients until they combine.
4. Slowly add in your olive oil and resume pulsing until you get your desired consistency.
5. Optional: For more flavor, you can add a bit of salt and pepper.

How To Use Pesto Sauce

We recommend making a large serving of pesto sauce so you can store it in the fridge or freezer and use it as a topper for your dishes. There are plenty of ways you can incorporate pesto into your meals, and it goes with almost anything!

Here are some ways you can use pesto sauce, from a dressing for your salad to a sauce for your pasta.

• As sauce: Use pesto to add flavor to your homemade dishes, whether pasta or mashed vegetables. You can even use it as a dip for chips or raw veggies.
• As a spread: For a healthy breakfast or snack, spread some pesto sauce on your bread or breakfast wrap.
• As a topping: Put pesto on your grilled chicken, roast beef, or steak for a unique flavor. Or use it as a dressing for salad.

Can You Freeze Pesto Sauce?

You can enjoy your homemade pesto sauce for months with proper storage. Before putting it in the freezer, make sure to chill the sauce first. Once cooled, put it in a freezer bag labeled with the date. If you don’t want to thaw a large amount of pesto sauce only to use a little, you can also freeze the sauce in ice cube trays for easy portioning.

When stored in the freezer, pesto sauce can last up to 6 months.

Keto Kale Pesto Salad

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:

Pesto:

1 cup fresh sage leaves

1 cup fresh basil leaves

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup pecans

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper, to taste

For the Salad:

3-4 cups kale, roughly chopped

1 cup Brussels sprouts, halved and roasted

½ cup Italian Style Southern Recipe Small Batch KRUTONES®

Roughly 1 Tbsp. Sesame seeds

1/3 cup Shirataki Noodles, prepared according to the package directions and chopped

½ cup jalapenos, finely diced

1 avocado, pitted and sliced

Steps:

1. First make the pesto. Add all of the ingredients into a food processor.
2. Pulse until the pesto is smooth and well blended.
3. Set aside. Roast Brussels sprouts for 35 minutes at 400 degrees F.
4. Assemble the salad by tossing all of the ingredients into a large bowl.
5. Add the keto pesto as a dressing and top with KRUTONES®.
6. Enjoy!