BINGHAMTON, NY – If you’re looking for a creative way to include dark leafy greens into your diet, this month’s Nutrition in the Kitchen has a suggestion.

Ann Supa, Nutrition Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County, is showing us how to make pesto.

Only, she’s offering some alternatives to the classic pasta sauce.

Instead of basil, which may not be easy to locally source this time of year, she’s using kale.

However, she says other dark leafy greens such as Swiss chard and spinach can also be substituted.

And she’s using walnuts to replace the traditional pine nuts which can be expensive and more difficult to find.

Supa says it’s a tasty way to get your greens.

“We need to eat dark leafy greens every day. So, you’re getting vitamin A, some vitamin K which is great for blood clotting and things like that, folate, which is good for brain development, and we also have a lot of antioxidants available in those dark leafy greens,” says Supa.

Supa says all pestos typically include olive oil, garlic and parmesan cheese.

She chose to serve it in a quinoa pesto salad and she says there’s lots of other ways to use pesto than just over pasta.

You can watch Supa’s full demonstration below.