Why it works for iron
Classic pesto relies on parmesan and pine nuts. This one uses pumpkin seeds, which carry more iron, and leaves out the cheese, whose calcium would hold the iron back. Squash and sun-dried tomatoes bring the keys.
- Iron from
- Pumpkin seeds, sun-dried tomatoes
- Let in by
- Pumpkin, sun-dried tomatoes, basil
- In the way
- Nothing: no dairy, tea or coffee
Plant iron needs a key to get in. On this plate it has one.
Ingredients
- 60 g dry pasta, not wholegrain
- 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- A handful each of basil and parsley
- 150 g squash or pumpkin
- 3 sun-dried tomatoes
- ½ lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic
Method
- 1
Roast the diced squash at 200 °C for 20 minutes. Cook the pasta.
- 2
Blend the seeds, herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, lemon and oil into a thick pesto with a splash of the pasta water.
- 3
Toss the pasta with the pesto and squash. No parmesan: it is dairy, and the seeds give the pesto its body.
Drink water with it. Have coffee or tea 1 hour before or 2 hours after, as they hold plant iron back.
