Easy and Delicious Vegan Pesto. Use with pasta, salads, over pizza, over garlic bread, roasted veggies, wraps! Nut-free option. Vegan gluten-free soy-free Recipe

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 10 minutes
  • Total time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Side
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

  • 1 cup packed fresh basil
  • 1 cup spinach (or baby kale, or loosely packed parsley, cilantro or more basil)
  • 2 tbsp sunflower seeds (or hemp seeds)
  • 3 tbsp pine nuts or pecans (or use almonds, cashews, walnuts, (hemp seeds or more sunflower seeds for nutfree))
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (, optional, add a cheesy flavor, or use vegan parmesan of choice)
  • zest of half a lemon (or use lemon juice to taste)
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • water as needed
  • black pepper (, red pepper flakes or other flavor addition)

Method

  1. Add basil, spinach, sunflower seeds, pecans, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, lemon zest to a food processor. Process until a coarse mixture.
  2. Add olive oil and a tbsp or so water. and process again. Add more water if needed to make a homogeneous mixture.
  3. Taste and adjust flavor. Add more oil to preference, adjust salt, add more nutritional yeast for cheesier. Use with pasta, salads, over pizza, over garlic bread, in sandwiches with roasted veggies and other applications. Store refrigerated for upto 5 days. Freeze in ice cubes.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.