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

Total Time 5

Servings servings

Calories 209kcal

Author Elena Szeliga

Cost $5

Equipment

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!

Video

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.

Nutrition