Here are some ideas of what we like to do with basil:
*Rip a leaf into pieces and put in a hot or cold sandwich
*Skewer basil leaves, grape tomatoes, and cubed buffalo motzarella, and black olives; drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve.
*Make Pesto and serve with pasta or serve it on top of Chicken Soup au Pistou (This is one of my family's favorite soups. We leave out the potatoes and usually use fresh green beans instead of frozen. If I am making pesto for this soup, I only add enough oil to get the pesto to blend (1/4 cup tops).
*Make Stir-fried Basil Chicken (Note: We use less red pepper flakes because we are spice wimps. Also, we don't like bok choy, so I just serve this with steamed white rice or coconut rice, lettuce, and cashews and we make it into lettuce wraps.)
*I haven't tried it yet, but this Coconut Sweet Potatoes and Wild Rice looks amazing and calls for fresh basil on top - in fact, BHG's whole collection of Crowd-Pleasing Holiday Casseroles looks amazing and uses lots of the other veggies we use if you want some good ideas.
I can't wait to try the Chicken Soup au Pistou!
ReplyDeleteHere is another super-easy recipe that uses fresh basil, is quite tasty, and very flexible.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/penne-with-butternut-squash-and-goat-cheese-recipe/index.html
We actually adapted this recipe - we don't use pasta or goat cheese anymore, instead we just make a roasted squash/onion side dish based off this recipe. The basil and walnuts are key!