The Best Homemade Pesto - Vegan Basil Recipes
The Best Homemade Pesto - Vegan Basil Recipes
Pesto adds a robust flavor change to any boring meal. If you didn’t have time to marinate your meat before cooking it, pesto can add in some instant potent lemony, nutty, cheesy flavor. You can get store bought, but homemade in my opinion always tastes the best. Store bought typically doesn’t taste as fresh. However, if you are going to buy a brand of pesto, my favorite store-bought brand is Trader Joe's vegan pesto because it is made with extra virgin olive oil as opposed to canola oil. Similar to the trader joe's vegan pesto, I use nutritional yeast which adds in B vitamins and iron as well as that cheesy flavor without using dairy. This is exciting for those who cannot tolerate dairy or are vegan!
If you are not vegan, parmesan cheese works best for regular pesto. There are different variations of pesto, you might have noticed some restaurants use walnuts or even almonds instead of pine nuts. Personally, I am a big fan of the traditionally pine nut flavor. You’ll also find some pesto recipes have arugula in addition to basil to bulk it up. This is nice if basil is expensive in your area, but I prefer using basil.
This recipe makes 1/2 cup pesto
Ingredients:
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
3 Tbsp pine nuts
3 large cloves garlic (peeled)
1/2 fresh lemon (juiced)
4 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp water
Blend everything in food processor and enjoy!
Recipe sdapted from Minimalistbaker
So now that you have (or are about to) make a healthy vegan pesto recipe, what should you eat with it?
You can eat a yummy piece of sourdough bread or fresh baked bread with pesto. You can add meat to make a higher protein sandwich (be aware, now it will not be a vegan dish). You could add cooked and flavored tempeh or tofu to keep it vegan and make it more filling with sandwich bread. You could add pasta and bison meatballs to add carbs and protein to make a more balanced and filling plate. You can add pesto to pretty much any sandwich to elevate the taste. Pesto on bagels, pesto on bread, pesto pasta, vegan/vegetarian meals with pesto as the base/sauce or any old boring meat recipe that lacks flavor and creamy texture.
Other Pesto Related Questions
Is pesto vegan?
Traditionally, no pesto is made with cheese and is therefore not vegan. Some pesto brands also include milk products like whey or straight up cow’s milk. Anything that is vegan omits animals and animal products including dairy, eggs and honey.
How to make vegan pesto?
Swap out cheese with nutritional yeast, it gives that similar cheesy savory flavor. If a recipe calls for cow’s milk, use water or a dairy free alternative milk.
How to make recipes vegan?
There are many ways to make recipes vegan. It depends on the recipe and if it is a baked good recipe or a cooking recipe. For example, if making vegan pancakes you can swap out the eggs with “flax-eggs”. To do this, you need to buy ground flaxseed and take a Tablespoon of ground flaxseed and mix with 2-3 tbsp water in a pan at low heat. You can watch the ground flaxseed congeal into a sticky baking tool to use as a binding agent instead of eggs. This “flax egg” is very common in baking. If cooking, things like nutritional yeast such as in the pesto recipe is a great cheesy flavor as opposed to actual cheese. Other common ways to make something vegan rather than using dairy is to use cashews and soak them overnight in water. This will serve as a creamy base for recipes that are creamy such as mac and cheese. Have you ever heard of mac n tease? Butternut squash can be used instead of cheese in combination with nutritional yeast.
What if you are allergic to nuts, can you eat vegan pesto?
No you cannot eat vegan pesto if you are allergic to nuts because there are pine nuts in pesto, even vegan pesto. However, if you are not allergic to hemp seeds, you could swap out the pine nuts for hemp seeds for another healthy pesto recipe.
