Pesto for Dessert? Absolutely!

My kids are well aware of the weirdness that dances through my head, and sometimes, they are my best sounding boards.  So when I brought up the idea of a dessert pesto to them, I was expecting some good feedback.  What I got went a little like this:

"Hey guys, what do you think about me trying to make a dessert pesto?"

"Ew."
"Yeah, ew."
"Like with cheese?  Ew"

"No, not with cheese, sillies!  I was thinking of making it with mint."

"Mom, mint is NOT going to go well with garlic!"
"Yeah, totally ew."
"I'm not going to eat that."



"Who said anything about garlic?  That would be gross, you're totally right.  That wasn't what I was thinking!  A sweet pesto, with mint and maybe some nuts, and sugar...like when I bash mint and sugar together and we have it on pineapple?  Only this you could spread on cookies, or dip fruit in or something."

"Oh, I looooove that pineapple stuff!"
"Hmmm...that wasn't what I thought you meant.  That sounds good.  But not with garlic and cheese.  Or garlic scapes either."
"I still don't want to try it."

"You guys are fantastic.  Thanks for the help."

I guess I should be proud that I have kids that can easily identify the ingredients to a basic pesto.  And the happy ending to the story is that, while Mr. Picky did not try this dish, both of the girls appear to be slightly addicted to it.  Without the garlic and cheese, that is.  ;)

So, here's the pesto:

A cup or so of fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons Muscovado or dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon coconut butter

Pop it all for a spin in a food processor, pulsing as necessary to get all the ingredients down to a pesto-like consistency.

I have all kinds of ideas on how to use this, but here's what we did today, which made a surprisingly delightful sweet treat:

Take some clean fresh strawberries, dip them in whipped cream cheese, then dip them in the mint pesto.  The tart of the berry, the rich tang of the cream cheese, and the pop of the mint pesto all come together to make a taste sensation!  We seriously had a hard time stopping ourselves from eating too many of these!

What else would I do with this pesto?  I think it would be great on fresh pineapple...mint and pineapple are a match made in heaven to me.  I would also spread it on sweet crackers.  Or on cookies...chocolate chip cookies would be a wow moment with the mint, I think.  Or sub an Oreo for the strawberry, and how yummy would that be?  Even roll it in some pie dough and slice it into sweet pinwheels!  Sprinkle it on cake, on ice cream, stir it into whipped cream over berries, or just eat it with a spoon.

But seriously, the strawberry thing is simply amazing.