Homemade and Cheesy Vegan Pesto
You can have this cheesy and easy vegan pesto recipe ready in only 20 minutes! You only need a handful of ingredients to make this vegan version of the classic recipe.
It has a delicious cheesy taste despite being a dairy-free pesto. It may be easier to just throw a vegan pesto jar in your shopping bag the next time you are visiting your local grocery store instead of making your own pesto. I used to feel this way. But the thing is, homemade pesto is not only easy to make, it is also most likely a lot healthier than the one on the store shelves.. and did I mention tastier!
If you want to save time time this week, make a big batch of this yummy bright green sauce, and use it as a salad dressing or as a pasta sauce to save time when making some easy weeknight dinners. Also, it is delicious as a bread-spread for breakfast. Try baking this homemade Norwegian crispbreads recipe – the crispbreads taste great with pesto and fresh cherry tomatoes.
If you don`t have a mortar at hand you can also use a knife to finely chop the ingredients. Just make sure to chop well enough to bring out the juice of the garlic and fresh herbs.
I would recommend making the pesto by hand over using a blender, as mixing olive oil at high speed can make it grow bitter.
Store the pesto in an airtight container, like a glass jar, in your refrigerator.
I hope you feel inspired to make this the next time you are craving some delicious pesto. If you make it I would love to hear from you, please write a comment to let me know what you thought of it. If you snap a picture, tag me on instagram @by.linaelisabeth – I look forward to seeing how your homemade pesto turns out!
Homemade Pesto without Cheese
Ingredients
- 50 g pine nuts
- 40 g fresh basil store bought plant (big)
- ¼ solo garlic
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
- 50 ml olive oil extra virgin
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
- First, roast the pine nuts in a pan on low heat until golden, this brings out the nutty flavor. Keep an eye on them while frying to make sure they do not get burned. Once the pine nuts are roasted toss them over in a small bowl or something similar. This is to take them out of the warm pan.
- Roughly chop the garlic and add it to your mortar and grind.
- Add the roasted pine nuts to your mortar and grind them together with the garlic.
- Roughly chop the fresh basil leaves and add them to your mortar, with the pine nuts and garlic. Grind the ingredients into a paste.You can use the stems of the plant as well, not just the fresh basil leaves. Everything is getting grinded together so we can use the whole plant.
- Add the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt to the mortar and stir it all together with a spoon – and there you go, I told you it was easy.The nutritional yeast is a substitute for Parmesan cheese. This ingredient gives that extra cheesy flavor.The lemon juice adds a lot of freshness to the pesto.
