Day 74: What to do with a lot of basil

So, since the Aerogarden was growing out of control, I finally harvested a LOT of basil. I ended up with a bountiful harvest of basil leaves.

I searched the Web not just for basil recipes, but for basil recipes that used a LOT of basil. A few teaspoons of chopped basil wouldn't do.

So I went to Google and searched "What to do with a bunch of basil?" The third link was a blog titled, conveniently enough, "What to do with a bunch of Thai basil", by Sandy at Tao de Kitchen.

The recipe was for Minced Turkey with Thai Basil. And joy of joys, it uses not one teaspoon, not one tablespoon, but a WHOLE CUP of basil!

So at my lunch hour at work yesterday, I went and bought two bell peppers (the rest of the stuff I had in the fridge). Last night I cooked up this masterpiece.

Mind you, I was a wee bit trepidatious, as the smell of fish sauce and oyster sauce wasn't too promising. But as the liquid started to reduce and I saw the beautiful glaze over the ground turkey, I knew I was on to something special. I put it on a place with some steamed rice and here's what it looked like.

The taste was phenomenal. So much so that I ate half of it right there and then. I'm about to heat up a little more for lunch right now.

Oh yeah, so after using one cup of basil, what did I do with the other three cups? You guessed it! Pesto! Pesto! Pesto!


Even though I trimmed a good 1/3 of my Aerogarden, I'll be on the search for more basil recipes before I take another trip next week, as that basil ain't slowing down any time soon! I do have some fresh mozarella, so I'll probably be making a ton more insalata caprese and margarita pizzas :)