I’m completely obsessed with this vegan pesto. It’s the best and most flavourful vegan pesto you will ever try. The taste is incredible and can really compare to any non-vegan pesto out there. It’s very versatile and can be incorporated in many recipes: pasta, pizza, roasted potatoes, green goddess sandwiches, vegan Caprese sandwich, spiralized beetroot, vegan cheese board. If you want to impress somebody with a homemade recipe, I would recommend you make any of these recipes. It’s also a great homemade edible gift that you can make for your friends.
The secret to achieving this amazing taste is roasting the pine nuts instead of using raw ones and substituting the original parmesan with cashews and nutritional yeast. There is just the right amount of olive oil in it so that it’s rich but not too oily. I don’t use garlic in my pesto. But what can’t be missing in the pesto are of course fresh basil leaves.
This sauce is super easy and quick to make. After roasting pine nuts in the oven just simply put them in a blender along with cashews and mix them into a creamy nut butter. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix them into a smooth sauce. In just a couple of minutes you have a base for many amazing recipes! You can prepare it in advance, store it in the fridge and then use it whenever you need to make a meal in a short time.
I love fresh basil and often use it in a sandwich or burger instead of leafy greens. It always makes me happy when I’m doing something with basil in my kitchen since the divine smell of basil stays on my fingers for some time. Do you feel similar about this herb? Some other recipes where I use fresh basil are bruschetta, vegan pasta bolognese and marinara sauce.
Have you made this recipe? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your feedback.
Vegan Pesto (GF)
Ingredients
- 135 g pine nuts roasted
- 40 g cashews
- 30 g fresh basil leaves
- 80 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (I used fortified with B12)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180 °C. Arrange the pine nuts on the baking tray with baking paper and roast them on the middle rack for 5-6 min. They are done when they start to brown but are not dark brown yet. Leave them to cool a little bit.
- Put roasted pine nuts and cashews in a blender first and blend them on a low speed until they transform into a nut butter. This will make a really creamy texture for vegan pesto and the final taste will be much better. After you have nut butter in a blender add to it the rest of ingredients. Mix until you have a silky sauce.
- Transfer vegan pesto into a small jar and store it in the fridge.
- Use it in pasta, on pizza, coat roasted potatoes or beetroot noodles with it, spread it in green goddess sandwich or vegan Caprese sandwich, serve it as part of vegan cheese board.
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