Chipotle Pecan Pesto

“You should work here. I am serious.”

My dear husband says that to me every time we are in Bouldin Creek Cafe, a hippie vegetarian restaurant located in south Austin. The reason? Han thinks if I work at the restaurant, I can learn to cook everything on their menu at home. Perhaps we can introduce the amazingly unique vegetarian food to New York City or San Francisco by opening a similar restaurant there.

You see, Han dreams unrealistically big. Sometimes, I can’t tell if he’s messing with me or he is serious. As a software engineer, he is also very systematic and data-driven. In our marriage, he brings the foresight and I keep him down grounded. It seems to be working.

Before he starts to dive into the numbers (even if he’s not serious, he would want to do the math because he is a total nerd), I manage to change the subject from looking for a kitchen job in the restaurant to the pesto on the table. It’s so good that I couldn’t help asking for extras, repeatedly. Our waitress noticed how much we love the pesto. The portion she brings out gets bigger and bigger each time.

“What’s in it?” I finally asked.

“You like it a lot, don’t you?” She smiles, “This is my absolute favorite too. It’s chipotle flavored pesto.”

“Where does the nutty flavor come from? Is it pine nuts?” I made my assumption.

“No, it’s actually pecan.”

I wait until the waitress walks away and turn to Han, “I am gonna try to make this at home.” Despite the fact that we’ve finished two portions of the pesto, he slowly dips into the pesto with his fork and carefully tastes it like he had never had it before.

“There’s definitely garlic in it.” He analyzes the flavor on his tongue, “Olive oil and some sort of cheese.”

That’s how this Chipotle Pecan Pesto happened. We’ve successfully reverse engineered the recipe and it tastes so damn close to the one in Bouldin Creek Cafe.

Like my pico de gallo and peach pico de gallo, you can literally put this Chipotle Pecan Pesto on everything. Whatever it touches, it becomes extremely tasty. I’d be honest with you. I don’t really like hard boiled eggs. But now I can easily eat two hard boiled eggs with the pesto in the morning as breakfast. Also, it’s great with pasta.

If you ever visit Austin, do make your way to this one-of-a-kind vegetarian restaurant. We’ve been trying to experience every single thing on both their lunch menu and dinner menu. Oh, they also serve breakfast all day. Their omelets are the bomb!

Other than using it as a dipping sauce or tossing it with pasta, what’s your idea to enjoy this Chipotle Pecan Pesto? Make it and let me know in the comments below. Cheers!

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