Edamame Pasta Salad with Arugula Mint Pesto

It is pesto season.  The part of the year when our gardens and refridgerators are all filled with lots of greens and herbs just begging to be blended to perfection with nuts, garlic and oils.  I love that the possibilities are endless when it comes to pesto ingredients.  Afterall, there are no rules.  Although the classic basil always gets made a lot at my house, all sorts of greens find their way into my pesto.  Tonight when I decided that pesto pasta sounded delicious, I grabbed a bunch of arugula and a bunch of mint and got to work. 

I had never combined these two ingredients before in a pesto, but an experiment was in order.  I combined them with pepitas that I had in my fridge as well, because at the moment I was out of walnuts and pine nuts.  The rest of the ingredients I added to the pesto were ones I would use in a classic pesto,   but it had such a different vibrant flavor than any other pesto I have made due to the peppery arugula and fresh strong mint.  I kept it vegan this time and skipped adding any cheese since the pepitas and the olive oil had already contributed plenty of richness.  I decided that this salad needed to have lots of veggies as well in addition to the pasta, so I added edamame for protein, and radishes and carrots for color as well as crunch.  It was all quite a delicious combination!  If you are in pesto making mode as well, here is the recipe if you would like to try some for yourself! 

Edamame Pasta Salad with Arugula Mint Pesto

Serves 4

Pesto:

1/2 cup mint

1 cup arugula

1 cup pepitas

2 lemons
4 garlic
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

8 oz penne pasta
10 radishes, thinly sliced
3 medium carrots, cut julienne
1/2 cup pepitas
1 12 oz bag frozen edamame, thawed

Place all pesto ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.  Set aside.  Cook pasta according to package directions, rinse with water, drain and let cool.  In a large bowl, combine pasta, radishes, carrots, pepitas, and edamame.  Add pesto and toss to coat.  Serve at room temperature.