Pea Pesto Crostini

Last night, we hosted four of our friends for dinner and a game night.  We'd been trying for months to find a night when all seven of us were available, so it was great to finally get everyone together and we had a lot of fun!  The menu was pretty disjointed--it didn't stick to any particular cuisine--but we still ate quite well.

Here's what we had:
Appetizers: Chunky Guacamole and chips; Pea Pesto Crostini
Main Course: Tofu and Vegetable Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce served over brown rice; Asian Slaw
Dessert: Hot Fudge Sundaes with Fudgy Brownies

I'll blog about the Pea Pesto Crostini here, and then I'll do a separate post for the Asian Slaw and the Hot Fudge recipes. 

Pea Pesto Crostini

Recipe:
Pea Pesto Crostini

Pea Pesto:

• 10-ounces frozen peas, defrosted
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 cup vegan bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Crostini:

• 1 baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• olive oil
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved

First, prepare the pea pesto.  Process the peas, garlic, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper in a food processor until well combined.  Then add the olive oil and process until the mixture becomes smooth.  Season the pesto with additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.  Set aside.  

To prepare the crostini, lightly drizzle or brush olive oil over the baguette slices and toast the bread.  Top each slice with pea pesto and tomato halves and serve.

Comments:
We've made these crostini several times before and they're always a crowd-pleaser. 

Taste: or 

They taste incredibly fresh and delicious.  They're a great, non-messy appetizer.    

Accessibility:  

We had most of these ingredients before going grocery shopping.  They're all quite standard ingredients, so you should have no trouble finding them.

Ease of Preparation: 

This recipe couldn't be much simpler: you put ingredients in a food processor and you're done.    

Non-vegan friendliness: 

I've served this to many non-vegans and they all raved about it.  In fact, we ended up making it as part of dinner last night because Rachel was SO excited to have it again.  Last night we had the vegan pea pesto detailed here in addition to a non-vegan version (the bread crumbs were replaced by Parmesan cheese), so it's also a flexible dish.