What’s the big deal with stems? In this cilantro pesto recipe, we keep them for a reason.

Cilantro, parsley, kale, chard, spinach…so often we are told to remove the stems from our greens, but the stems have the same nutrition as the leaves.

We want things to be so neat and tidy all the time—in our home, in our job, in our relationships, in our food—but life is a mess! Dirty, tough, painful, sad, and lonely and full of joy, wonder, beauty, amazement, and passion.

These experiences do not have to be separate, but we often separate them like a leaf from a stem, thinking we can have one part without the other. But can you experience joy and beauty and wonder to the same capacity without pain and sorrow and loss? Can you enjoy the clean and the simple without an understanding of the dirty and the messy?

I say, keep the flexible stems: let them hold the center, sway and adapt, nourish you, and challenge your sense of neat and tidy. May their presence make the texture richer, truer, and more nuanced.

MAKES: About ½ cup

Cilantro Pesto Ingredients

2 heaping tablespoons walnuts
2 cups packed cilantro leaves and stems (1 large bunch)
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Soak the walnuts overnight in enough water to cover them. (Soaking the walnuts makes them easier to digest and helps remove some of the bitterness in the skin.)

2. Drain and rinse the walnuts. Combine them with the cilantro, garlic, oil, salt to taste, and a few grinds of pepper in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary. The cilantro pesto will keep for 5 to 7 days in the fridge or for 6 months or more in the freezer.

Use and Storage: Cilantro pesto has tremendous detoxifying properties and can be particularly helpful for those who may have been or are continually exposed to environmental pollutants or heavy metals, including the heavy metals found in seafood.

Some of my favorite things to top with cilantro pesto include scrambled eggs, sandwiches, tuna and other fish, toast, roasted beets and other root veggies, and grains… and it’s delicious on its own by the spoonful!

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Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from Recipes from the Herbalist’s Kitchen by Brittany Wood Nickerson. Copyright © 2017 by Brittany Wood Nickerson. Reprinted with permission from Storey Publishing, an imprint of Workman Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.