This simple plant-based basil pesto recipe without cheese packs all of the delicious pesto flavour of traditional basil pesto, but it's dairy-free and gluten-free. By using a food processor, we make light work of processing loads of basil leaves for a flavourful bright green vegan pesto sauce.
Yield1 cup
Servings16
Equipment
- Food processor – see the notes if you don't have one
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- ½ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted*
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, more to top
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Place the roughly chopped garlic clove in a mortar with half a teaspoon of salt. Grind the garlic into a paste. Then add the toasted pine nuts and bash into a creamy paste. (Or process in a food processor with half the oil until you have a creamy paste.)
- Add the chopped basil leaves to a food processor bowl and drizzle with half of the olive oil. Pulse, stopping to push down the leaves with a spatula a couple of times until you have a fragrant, emerald-green basil paste.
- Transfer the basil paste to a bowl with the remaining olive oil, and add the salty garlic and pine nut paste. Mix in the lemon juice and nutritional yeast.
- Taste and adjust the salt and acidity. Keep in mind that the flavours develop as the mixture sits. Add more olive oil for a thinner consistency.
Notes
- Toast raw pine nuts in a hot, dry pan for a few seconds – taking care not to burn them.
- When I plan to freeze basil, I don’t add lemon juice or nutritional yeast. I add it when I defrost the basil pesto for the perfect fresh basil pesto taste. You can also stir in some extra olive oil to revive it a bit.
- See the full blog post for ingredients and substitutes and step-by-step instructions for pesto without cheese.