I made homemade pesto yesterday. You only need a few ingredients for a wonderful sauce that can be added to pasta, sandwiches, salads, etc. I can’t give exact measurements, as I tend to cook by sight and taste versus actual quantities.
As I am embracing a primarily vegan diet (usually about 75% of the time), this recipe works perfectly for that. I know someone is thinking, ‘what about the cheese?’. I have a response for that. You can either omit it or you can substitute nutritional yeast. It has a pseudo-Parmesan cheese flavor. I will admit, I forgot to include the nutritional yeast in the picture.
In addition to being vegan, it’s also raw and gluten-free. It’s full of flavor and blends up in seconds.
You can choose to lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet for a few minutes or just buy them already toasted (what I did).
You can try this basic recipe or Google other pesto recipes. It’s usually made with basil, however, I’ve seen a multitude of substitutions as well.
Ingredients:
- Basil
- pine nuts
- garlic clove(s)
- nutritional yeast (or Parmesan cheese; for the non-vegans)
- Pinch of salt
- Olive oil
Place all the ingredients into a food processor. Blend (or pulse) to a smooth consistency. Make sure to scrape down the sides as you go. Either add to pasta that’s already cooked or store in the refrigerator to use at another time.
There is no need to heat the pesto sauce. Hot pasta will actually warm it up. It’s a nice alternative to marinara or pizza sauce.