An Afternoon with Basil: An Inner Raw Beauty Intuition Recipe

May was nothing short of wonderful, yet it was still full of its ups and downs. Oh how I wish we’re (The Raw Beauty Project) able to join a Health and Wellness Fair just like last April 30’s Flow in the City’s Summer Wellness Market held at Mandala Park, and share our handpainted Love Journals, and our very own Protein Energy Balls, Our Courage Bites! We miss you guys more than you think and we just can’t wait to see you again on our next events!

It was just so random. I probably stayed too long – soaking up the busy, chaotic and crazy energies that is Manila and one morning, I just woke up and decided to go back home here in Batangas, where yes, I get to truly live closest to Mother Earth. Such abundance of trees, flowers and the humming of birds early in the morning makes me feel every ounce of gratitude leaping straight from my heart. I feel truly blessed whenever I’m here, and it is here where I get to be extremely creative and intuitive especially with food. And it just so happened one afternoon, after sleeping half the day and gulping a huge Raw Beauty Green Smoothie, I saw a can of chickpeas sitting on our pantry shelves and remembered seeing two plump lemons on our fridge. Without thinking, I got up from my seat, washed my hands and found myself draining and rinsing chickpeas, squeezing lemons, pounding garlic and looking for some olive oil that I could use to make Hummus. To say that I love Hummus would be such an understatement as I’ve been constantly ordering it for the past few days at Persia Grill, plus their Baba ganoush..You can say that my disappointment with the restaurant’s serving size of this dip greatly motivated me to just make my own. Well, probably it was always at the back of my mind that when I saw the opportunity to create my own version, I just jumped right through it. J And thank the heavens I did!

And there’s a beautiful, aromatic and herby twist to it as I sorted out stuff on our fridge, I saw these teeny tiny packs of basil and I was like, oh my gosh! This leaf could totally add so much flavour with my hummus, and that my friends, was how I ended up with this Super Delicious, Protein Packed Herby Basil Hummus Pesto Dip.

This is perfect with raw cucumbers, carrots, lettuce or even a pasta sauce using soba noodles! They’re just so good I strongly advise you to make double or triple the recipe as we’ve devoured a whole batch in just two meals! Dinner and Breakfast to be exact, it’s that UH-MAZING guys! So here you go, unleash Your Inner Raw Beauty Domestic Goddess within and whip them up, stitches! Cause I don’t want to use the B word, stitches! :*

Basil Hummus Pesto

A Raw Beauty Original Recipe

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 ½ juice of lemon

1 whole medium garlic

½ cup of olive oil

A handful of basil, adjust freely

¾ cup of water

2 tsp of fine salt, pink Himalayan salt is best if available

Directions:

1. Setup your blender/ food processor and all the ingredients for this delish dip recipe. J

2. Once you’ve rinsed the chickpeas with water, place them in a strainer for around 5 minutes and allow excess water to drain. While doing this, you may soak up the basil in a mixture of 1 cup water and ¼ cup white/ cider vinegar as well.

3. Blend the chickpeas, olive oil and water first. Add 1 tsp of salt and pulse once more.

4. Pour in the lemon juice, washed basil leaves and garlic. Pulse until the dip mixture turns light green.

5. Taste and adjust salt seasoning to your preference. Though I recommend putting 2 tsp at the most. J

6. Pulse and enjoy with your favourite raw salad of cabbage, tomatoes and cucumber or transfer to a secured container. Keep this on the fridge for three days at the most.

This Basil Hummus Pesto Dip is also great to eat with some whole grain rice and fresh mangoes, trust me on this Raw Beauties, as I just had this for breakfast with a green juice, and it tasted, yes, it tasted, UH-MAZING! You could make a huge batch for your whole family to enjoy, or even as your to go snack at school or at work. J It’s so easy, you just have to do it!

I seriously hope you learned a thing or two from this and I just can’t wait for you to make and taste them! It’s life changing and quite empowering to create dishes that you usually just order straight from restaurants. It makes you want to create and experiment more, it makes you love yourself more as you nourish your body with whole, plant based food that surely loves you from within. J

Much love,

Princess