Our balcony is a garden. Every year we grow a lot of things. It makes us kind of imagine that we live in the country. For about four years we have grown different types of vegetables and herbs. This year we chose tomatoes, black jalapeño, mini sugar snaps, cilantro and basil. It is a challenge to find the best things to grow on a balcony in the middle of the city. Other years we have tried potato, horse radish and carrots but those all turned out pretty bad. Well the potatoes actually turned out pretty well but there where very few of them. It is fun to try and grow things that are not meant for a balcony just so that we can see how it works out. Another thing that we find important is to grow things that we can actually make things of. If the “harvest” turns out well we will make either a chutney or some type of marmalade from the tomatoes and the jalapeños will be cut and preserved in bottles for future taco dinners.

Every year when we grow basil we get a lot of it and it seems that no matter how much we harvest it keeps coming more and more. Then we make pesto. Not the ordinary type of pesto with basil, Parmesan cheese and pine nut but the best pesto ever! Not saying that there is anything wrong with the ordinary one, it is super tasty, but some years ago when I ate only vegan food I came up with this recipe. It contains no dairy products and it turned out to be one of my most beloved recipes. No matter if you eat dairy products or not,  you just have to make this Pesto. It is made with basil, parsley, roasted almonds and lemon. The almonds have to be roasted. If you try to make it without roasting the almonds you will not get the same result at all. Eat it with pasta, bread and veggies!