Beet & barley bowls with beet green pesto

Pesto Italian cuisine

I like to call these vegetarian power bowls. Vegan even, if you skip the goat cheese. Me, however, I'll never skip the goat cheese. We set out to create a unique pesto recipe using KitchenAid's new mini food processor, and these veggie-friendly bowls were the perfect vehicle on which to smother it. With a base of hearty protein-rich barley, sweet roasted beets and savory roasted mushrooms, all tossed with a waste-nothing batch of beet green pesto, these bowls are both filling and flavorful, and downright awesome. The beet green pesto uses the otherwise-wasted beet greens as the base, resulting in a super-flavorful twist on an classic Italian pesto sauce. Blanching the greens first removes any undesired bitterness, and adding a handful of basil and parsley gives the pesto a nice herbal brightness and counteracts the overt earthiness that often turns people off of beets and beet greens entirely. With a touch of orange zest, vinegar, and honey, trust me, it does not taste like dirt in