Vegan Green Garden Puree (For Pizza, Lasagna Or Pasta) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb asparagus, ends discarded, and chopped into 3-inch lengths
1 lb green beans, halved, ends removed and discarded (or better yet composted!)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup slivered almonds
2 garlic cloves (or more)
1 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
4 scallions, green parts only, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, juice of
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 lb extra firm tofu (water packed, drained and pressed)
1 cup chopped basil leaves

Preparation

Have ready a large bowl of ice water.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Add the asparagus and green beans; boil for 2 minutes. Add the frozen peas and boil for 2 more minutes.
Drain vegetables and submerge in the ice water to stop the cooking.
Pulse the almonds to a fine powder. I used the blender for this.
Add the vegetables, garlic, parsley, scallions, olive oil, lemon juice, and nutmeg; puree until smooth.
Note: My blender could not accommodate all of the ingredients so I needed to puree in batches. I also had to add some water otherwise it would not blend. All together I added about 1/2 cup of water and it was not too runny in the end.
In a large bowl, mash the tofu with your hands until it has a ricotta-like consistency. I used a hand held immersion blender for this and it worked beautifully.
Add the puree and mix well.
Fold in the basil.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.