Cheesy, garlicky and deliciously flavorful vegan pesto. Perfect to serve with pasta, on pizza or spread on some crusty bread. Super easy and versatile.
If there’s one thing it’s important to have in your vegan recipe repertoire it’s a good vegan pesto.
It’s super easy to throw together without notice and you can serve it with pasta for a 10-minute meal that will literally wow absolutely everyone.
It’s gourmet as heck while being ridiculously simple!
How to make vegan pesto
We used a mix of fresh basil and parsley in this pesto as the parsley provides a lovely balance to the flavor.
And then we used a mix of pine nuts and walnuts for the same reason – the walnuts provide some balance to the stronger flavor of the pine nuts.
So the overall recipe has a lovely flavor balance between strong flavors and mild so that no particular flavor is overpowering.
We also added ¼ cup water along with ¼ cup olive oil. The water was to create the perfect texture to the pesto without adding any more oil.
And this works perfectly here because the end result isn’t too heavy or oily as pestos can sometimes be.
The cheesy flavor comes from some nutritional yeast and we have lemon juice and crushed garlic and of course some sea salt and black pepper to round off the flavors beautifully.
While this pesto is awesome with some pasta it’s not the only place for it! It’s also divine spread on some crusty bread or on top of a delicious vegan pizza!
You can also have it along with your salad as a salad dressing or on top of your veggies.
Vegan Pesto Sauce Q&A
How long does vegan pesto last? It lasts at least 5 days (and up to a week) in the fridge.
Can you freeze it? Yes, it’s freezer friendly for up to 6 months!
What to do with vegan pesto? Serve it with pasta! That’s the most common way. Or you can serve it with bread, on pizza or even as a salad dressing.
What’s the difference between vegan pesto and regular pesto? Regular pesto is usually made with dairy parmesan and pecorino cheeses. Vegan pesto of course doesn’t use dairy cheese so instead creates the cheesy flavors with the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, crushed garlic and other spices.
You will love this vegan pesto recipe! It is:
- Cheesy
- Garlicky
- Highly flavorful
- Versatile
- Super easy
Store leftovers in the fridge where it will stay fresh for 5-7 days.
If you love pesto then also check out our vegan pesto pasta with pan roasted cherry tomatoes.
Try this pesto on a delicious vegan pasta salad or spread it on some homemade vegan dinner rolls or homemade whole wheat bread.
So what do you think of this recipe? Let us know in the comments and please rate the recipe too! Thanks!
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Vegan Pesto
Ingredients
- ½ cup Pine Nuts (68g)
- ½ cup Walnuts (50g)
- ¼ cup Olive Oil (60ml)
- 1 tsp Crushed Garlic
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- ⅓ cup Nutritional Yeast (20g)
- 1 cup Fresh Basil Leaves Packed
- ½ cup Fresh Parsley Packed
- ¼ cup Water (60ml)
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to the food processor and process until well combined.
- Serve with pasta or on top of pizza or spread on delicious crusty bread. Also makes a great topping for salads or vegetables.
Video
Notes
- Storing. It lasts at least 5 days (and up to a week) in the fridge.
- Freezing. It’s freezer friendly for up to 6 months!
So happy I decided to check out alternate pesto recipes just in case I found one better than the one I have been using for years (from a best selling vegan cookbook author).
Much prefer this lower salt content to the ‘other’ recipe and also the half water half oil makes it lighter and not as heavy.
I am the only pesto lover in our home (husband is a red sauce man) so I freeze it in snack bags and flatten them out for easy freezing and thawing. If you bend the flat frozen pesto when you want to thaw it out you can break it into two pieces and put it into a bowl and not end up attempting to scrape off the thawed yummy pesto from the inside of the snack bag.
So happy to hear you like the recipe Maureen, and thanks for sharing your freezer tips! 🙂
Delicious. First time I made pesto and not sure why I waited so long to try. I didn’t have pine nuts so substituted with raw cashew which was great.
Thanks!
Awesome! So happy to hear it worked out great with cashews too. Thanks for the wonderful review!