Firstly, allow me to apologise for my brief hiatus. If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat you’ll know that I was busy eating my way through Istanbul, Berlin and Prague, but alas I have returned. A full vegan travel recap is of course forthcoming, so stay tuned!
In any case, on to the recipe du jour.
Even though it takes me about forever and a day, I do in fact respond to reader requests for recipes. Case in point, the vegan macaroni bechamel was one such recipe – and so is today’s.
As a seasoned vegan (forgive the pun) pesto is one of those things I have learned not to even bother picking up at the supermarket. While I adore it (basil, garlic, nuts and olive oil – what’s not to love?), the store bought kind is almost never vegan-friendly, given that it usually contains some sort of cheese. That said, I have on occasion come across some vegan pesto, but the truth is more often than not it’s expensive, and sub-par.
So a couple of weeks ago, when a craving for my signature chickpea and pesto pasta hit, I rolled up my sleeves, tapped into the motherlode of walnuts I discovered hiding out in my freezer, and got to work.
- 2 cups fresh basil, washed and de-stemmed
- ½ cup raw walnuts
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- Sea salt to taste
- A splash of water
- Combine all ingredients in a small food processor or a high-speed blender and pulse until combined, stopping to scrape down edges as needed. Depending on your device you may need to add a splash of water to help blend.
And the recipe notes, as per usual:
- I used the small cup of my nutribullet to make this, and it works fantastically well. A smaller food processor would also work great, and probably result in a more textured pesto which some people prefer
- Don’t skimp out on the olive oil for this one, I mean it. A high quality, organic extra virgin olive oil will make all the difference in terms of flavour
- Feel free to reduce the amount of garlic as needed, I just like an extremely garlicky pesto
- If you’re feeling ambitious, you could try toasting the walnuts beforehand for a deeper flavour, but I personally prefer it raw
If you’re not much of a pasta lover – fret not. There are tons of ways you could use this pesto. Dilute it with some water and lemon juice to make salad dressing, spread it on toast or as a base for sandwiches, or even use it as a coating for your favourite roasted vegetables.
Whatever you do, do not leave it out if your cat is on the prowl.
If they’re anything like mine, they’ll head straight for it. That’s Cinnamon snarling at the camera after I shoo’d her away from the pesto.
Until next time, dear readers!
Oh, my goodness–Cinnamon is a doll! I adore orange cats; I think they’re just gorgeous.
This recipe looks good, except for the nutritional yeast. I just can’t stand that stuff. To me it ruins the flavor of anything it’s in. I make pesto without the yeast and it’s fine. I do use quite a bit of coarse salt in it. Sometimes I wish I could come up with something reminiscent of Parmesan to put in, but so far I haven’t come up with any brilliant ideas.
Do you have a post on your chickpea & pesto pasta? That sounds great, as I’m a huge chickpea fan. I’ll look for it.
I’ve never met someone who doesn’t like nooch – but I suppose there’s a first time for everything! I’ve come across some vegan parmesan at the supermarket from time to time and it tastes pretty realistic, perhaps you could check a health food store local to you?
I don’t have a post on the chickpea and pesto pasta just yet, but I’ll be sure to blog it very soon.
I always put a little white miso paste in my pesto, and it really amps up the umami factor. You could give that a try!
Nada, i get that about the nooch; it’s like, apparently some people think cilantro tastes like soap and they think it ruins anything it’s put in. That I don’t understand! But there it is, heh.
Will look forward to the pasta recipe…
Cadry, interesting about the miso. I might try that. Thanks!
Do you think this would work with coconut oil instead of olive oil?
Hi Nina, you could try it out however I feel the coconut flavour would be overwhelming and I’m not sure that it complements the walnuts or basil.
Hey Nada, I was just wondering how long can this pesto be kept and for how long and where. Thanks so much!
Made this recipe today.
It was totally delicious.
Thanks for the post.
So glad you enjoyed, Pedro!
I gathered a huge amount of basil this afternoon and when I couldn’t stand it any longer, Googled vegan pesto with walnuts. Yours was at the top of the page, and it is DELICIOUS! Thank you! So glad I have garlic on hand. I think I need to sign up for your listserve if you have one. BTW, Cinnamon is an adorable kitty! We just brought home a ~ 3-year-old semiferal (so we thought), vbery skinny tuxedo kitty after giving him a thorough going over, complete with snip and dip. He turned out not to be feral at all, though, and we can”t wait to bring him in from his private “suite” in the garage to the house where our other two cats (both female) and four dogs (three females) let us stay … most of the time!