Quick and Easy Leftover Sauce

In yesterday's compost post I mentioned that we use produce scraps in other recipes.  This is one of them!  This pesto-esque sauce is so delicious, easy, and versatile that it has become one of our go-to recipes when I don't feel like cooking.  It also freezes quite well!

First I gather the ingredients.  When I chop of broccoli for roasted veggies I save the stems and freeze them.  Any green veggie is really perfect.  This time, I used some spinach that was starting to turn with the broccoli stems.  Other than that, you need some parsley, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and lemon.  Although the vinegar, garlic, and lemon are all optional.

First, boil some well-salted water and plunge the broccoli stems (other other greens) into it.  When they are soft, remove them.

While that is cooking, smash up some garlic.  The beauty of this recipe is that you can use as much or little as you want.  This particular time, we were going out afterward and did not want to be all garlicky, so we used only 2 cloves.  In the past, we have garlicked it ALLL up.  Your choice.

Add that, along with some parsley,

and balsamic vinegar

to a blender.  I use about 1.5/2 Tablespoons of each, but depending on your mood you can make it a more garlicky sauce, a more vinegary sauce, or a more lemony sauce. 

Once the broccoli is soft, add it to the blender.  Mix, drizzling in Olive Oil to help it along and to get the right consistency.

Squeeze some lemon juice on in there as well, to perk it up.  As you can see, I also added some sea salt to the mix. 

When it is well-blended, you are done!

Serve it with pasta (reuse that broccoli boiling water!) and freeze some for later!

This post was featured on Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays, Healthy Kids at Creating Nirvana, and the Pennywise Platter on The Nourishing Gourmet!