[Vegan MOFO] Mama Mia Monday - Pesto Salad

A few weeks back on a day trip to Sacramento I had an awesome pesto salad for lunch at The Plum. It was creamy, herby, tasty....really good! I thought to recreate it at home.

I wanted to make pesto - get this with a mortar and pestle, real old school. I could not find organic basil in a decent quantity around town, so instead of getting frustrated I moved on to plan B. Plan B consisted of buying Simply Organic's Sweet Basil Pesto, making the sauce following the packages instructions (adding nooch) and then letting it sit in the fridge till dinner time.

I spiral cut a bunch of zucchini, tossed it with some Tuscan kale + olive oil, added cherry tomatoes and the pesto sauce. For a nutty boost I added a nice sprinkle of pine nuts on top.  First off the Tuscan kale I bought from Trader Joe's was really rough and bitter. It just made the salad hard to eat. The pesto sauce was not pesto-y enough...At least we had garlic bread to save the meal! Again - I tried...