The Best Vegan Pesto Recipe

The only Vegan Pesto recipe you’ll ever need! This delicious, cheesy and healthy sauce contains 5 ingredients and only takes 5 minutes to make. Serve it with pasta, bread, grilled vegetables or potatoes. Only 209 calories per serving!

Pesto sauce is one of the most loved condiments in my household. We consume a LOT of it and together with Sicilian pesto, green pesto is one of my all-time favorites.

There are many vegan versions of green pesto I’ve tried over the years (hello, vegan kale pesto) but after I tried this one, I think I found the best one.

If you are looking for THE BEST vegan pesto, look no further, because that’s the only recipe you’ll ever need! And here is why. This pesto is:

• Creamy;
• Delicious;
• Versatile;
• Cheesy (!);
• Freezable (perfect for meal prep);
• Healthy;
• Nutritious;
• Gluten-free and dairy-free;
• Easy and quick to make.

The secret ingredient here is macadamia nuts. I must say, I’ve only tried them recently but I became a huge fan. Together with nutritional yeast, they give a lovely cheesy touch to the pesto that is so hard to replicate in vegan foods.

Ingredients:

• Basil;
• Macadamia nuts;
• Nutritional yeast;
• Olive oil;
• Salt
• Black pepper.

Health Benefits

This vegan basil pesto is so nutritious you won’t believe it! Sometimes food is truly a medicine and this is exactly the case with this pesto.

Let’s start with basil, a unique source of vitamin K, manganese, essential oils and antioxidants.

It has some amazing health-protecting properties like anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, as well as analgesic and immune-boosting benefits.

Macadamia nuts are great for healthy fats, antioxidants, essential vitamins and minerals like vitamin A, B vitamins, folate, copper, manganese and iron.

They are good in fighting disease and help you reduce weight.

Macadamia nuts keep your nervous system, brain, heart and bones healthy, while reducing inflammation and assisting in healthy digestion.

Nutritional yeast used in this pesto sauce is good for your hair, skin and nails. It is good for your immune system and contains immune-boosting, antibacterial and antiviral compounds.

It helps your digestion and is recommended to be consumed during pregnancy to prevent birth defects.

Despite recent rumors, nutritional yeast is good for you and has minimum side effects if consumed in moderation.

I recommend Simply Organic nutritional yeast flakes that are great for this recipe.

Olive oil has a number of health benefits as well, which you probably have heard of.

Being rich in healthy fats, it boosts your metabolism, prevents aging, improves digestion and prevents inflammation, just to mention a few. Here is the full list of the health benefits of olive oil.

I recommend using good quality extra virgin olive oil, like cold-pressed organic La Tourangelle extra virgin olive oil.

How to Use It

You can use this pesto in so many ways! Here are some of them:

1. The most obvious choice is delicious vegan pesto pasta;
2. Use it as a spread for you toast;
3. As a dip;
4. As a pizza sauce;
5. In soups;
6. As a salad dressing;
7. With cauliflower rice;
8. With normal rice;
9. In sandwiches and burgers;
10. With baked potatoes;
11. With zucchini noodles;
12. With roasted vegetables;
13. Bake it into bread (I urge you to try it!)

The list goes on and on. I created a collection of 50 healthy vegan recipes with pesto that will give you more ideas about how to serve it.

This vegan pesto sauce can be used in so many dishes, being one of the easiest sauces you can make at home!

Cook’s Tips

• Store the vegan pesto in an airtight jar in the fridge for about 7 days.
• This sauce freezes perfectly in ice cube trays, so feel free to double or triple the batch if you want to meal prep. Freeze in an ice cube tray for up to 3 months.
• Start with 2 tablespoons water and keep adding water to the sauce until you like the consistency.
• If you want your pesto to be very smooth, blend it longer. For more chunky pesto, pulse it just a few times.
• Serve with pasta, as a bread spread, as a dip and salad dressing, as a pizza sauce, in soups, with rice or cauliflower rice, baked potatoes, roasted vegetables or bake it into bread.

Recipe Variations

• You can use any nuts you like or have at hand in place of macadamia: walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, pecans or cashews. They will add slightly different flavors to the pesto but it comes out delicious every time.
• Use any leafy greens instead of basil to make your pesto more nutritious. You can add arugula, kale, spinach, parsley or cilantro (also great in mojo verde). Here is a delicious wild garlic pesto recipe perfect for spring. Another way to use up herbs is to make a delicious green harissa paste.
• Add avocado/sun-dried-tomatoes/peas to spice things up. Alternatively, try my favorite avocado dressing.
• To make the pesto sauce oil-free, add a few slices of ripe tomatoes.

How to Make It

Traditional pesto is made of fresh basil leaves, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, salt, pepper and Pecorino cheese.

In my vegan version, I keep all the ingredients except for cheese and pine nuts that I substitute with macadamia nuts and nutritional yeast (see the vegan pesto web story).

Of course you can substitute any leafy greens for basil leaves and play around with other ingredients (see notes). Feel free to do so!

But I would like to stick to the traditional recipe this time, making the vegan version as close to the original as possible. And I think I managed to do it.

The recipe will take you no more than 5 minutes to make. Assemble all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.

If you feel like using a mortar and pestle, feel free to do that.

Recipes similar to vegan pesto

• chimichurri
• tkemali
• tahini buddha bowl dressing
• vegan bechamel
• vegan ricotta
• vegan wild garlic pesto
• green harissa
• mojo verde
• avocado dressing

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4.84 from 36 votes

The Best Vegan Pesto Recipe

The only Vegan Pesto recipe you'll ever need! This delicious, cheesy and healthy sauce contains 5 ingredients and only takes 5 minutes to make. Serve it with pasta, bread, grilled vegetables or potatoes. Only 209 calories per serving!

Course Condiment

Cuisine Italian

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 8 servings

Calories 209kcal

Author Elena Szeliga

$5

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 cups or 140 g fresh basil leaves
• ▢ 2/3 cup or 90 g raw macadamia nuts
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic
• ▢ 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• ▢ 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• ▢ 3-4 tablespoons water
• ▢ sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

• Add basil leaves, macadamia, garlic and nutritional yeast in a cup of a food processor or blender and blend until a thick paste forms, scrapping sides. Add extra virgin olive oil and water, one tablespoon at a time, until smooth. Add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy!
  

Notes

This recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto which is roughly 8 servings (2 tablespoons per serving).

For usage ideas, check these 50 healthy vegan recipes with pesto.

Cook’s Tips

• Store the vegan pesto in an airtight jar in the fridge for about 7 days.
• This sauce freezes perfectly in ice cube trays, so feel free to double or triple the batch if you want to meal prep. Freeze in an ice cube tray for up to 3 months.
• Start with 2 tablespoons water and keep adding water to the sauce until you like the consistency.
• If you want your pesto to be very smooth, blend it longer. For more chunky pesto, pulse it just a few times.
• Serve with pasta, as a bread spread, as a dip and salad dressing, as a pizza sauce, in soups, with rice or cauliflower rice, baked potatoes, roasted vegetables or bake it into bread.

Recipe Variations

• You can use any nuts you like or have at hand in place of macadamia: walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, pecans or cashews. They will add slightly different flavors to the pesto but it comes out delicious every time.
• Use any leafy greens instead of basil to make your pesto more nutritious. You can add arugula, kale, spinach, parsley or cilantro. Here is a delicious wild garlic pesto recipe perfect for spring.
• Add avocado/sun-dried-tomatoes/peas to spice things up. Alternatively, try my favorite avocado dressing.
• To make the pesto sauce oil-free, add a few slices of ripe tomatoes.

Equipment

food processor

rubber spatula

glass jar

Nutrition

Calories: 209kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 284mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 3120IU | Vitamin C: 11.1mg | Calcium: 123mg | Iron: 2.7mg

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