Basic Pesto

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Recipe submitted by music@lightspeed.bc.ca

Basic Pesto

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

2 cup basil leaves
2 tablespoon pine nuts
2 oz. grated, vegan Parmesan or nutritional yeast flakes
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor and mix thoroughly. Adjust the amount of olive oil as needed.

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 10

great recipe I like to make my pesto with a bit of parsley added, it complaments the basil also instead parmeson cheese I add grated,crushe'd or powdered almonds for texture and just deal with the stlightly different taste

Archived comment by: natasha

I make a batch and freeze in 2oz cups - use all winter. Great fast meal w pasta. Also, I like adding handful of fresh Terragonto the mixer. Taste is better.

Archived comment by: fred16

Walnuts work well too, much less expensive. Also, an use fresh spinach leaves w teragon.

Archived comment by: fred16

I made a variation on this recipe tonight and it was great! I substituded almonds for pine nuts and topped the plate of pasta and sauce with fresh chopped garden tomatoes and orange peppers. Very tasty!

Archived comment by: carrie

Is there any way to reduce the olive oil content without changing the flavor drastically?

Archived comment by: teri

Thank you for the Pesto. It is delicious. I never made it before. And eat it now regular Thanks Martina

Archived comment by: martina

acutally you can make vegan parmesan...i thought i got the recipe here, but it was so long ago. take 1/2 c. almonds, 2 T nutritional flakes, 1 t onion powder, 1 t garlic powder, 1 t sea salt and put it all in the food processor and grind it up... you will not know the difference!!! it is awesome!! keep it in an airtight container and it will stay fresh for a long time!!

Archived comment by: tawny

btw for anyone who is interested the vegan parmesan alternative i found it at my local health food store next to the dairy products. its made by soyco, or galaxy foods. watch out b/c they have more than one parmesan alternatives and some of their other products do have casein in them. this product says VEGAN in big bold letters. i tried it out w/this recipe and it worked great!!!

Archived comment by: veganxpower

Hello, I noticed that someone wanted to know if reduceing the olive oil content would really change the recipe... It will, but personaly I think that using about half the olive oil and replaceing the other half with lemon jucie gives it wonderful flavor and is more healthy.

Archived comment by: renees85


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Cristybel

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Re: Basic Pesto

« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2008, 01:48:40 PM »

This was the first time I ever made Pesto. I just LOVE it! I have a big basil plant in my garden and love the flavor. Thanks!


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tofupuppy

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Re: Basic Pesto

« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2008, 08:36:04 PM »

I make pesto all the time with other nuts; almonds, walnuts. I just made pesto with your basic pine nuts, a quarter of the leaves were basil and the rest was arugula. Wow is right!! Add some lemon juice and it's fantastic!


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all mod cons

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Re: Basic Pesto

« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2008, 11:10:57 AM »

I must confess I haven't actually used this recipe, but it's very close to how I normally make pesto. Nutritional yeast really does work well in place of the cheese!
To cut down on oil without leaving it too dry, I often throw some steamed green vegetables into the blender with everything else. Zucchini is great for it, and I've had success with kale and spinach too. Yum!


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lmzeigler

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Cheers!

Re: Basic Pesto

« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2008, 11:18:54 PM »

Yum yum and yum! I made this for my Christmas dinner last night for a room full of non-vegans. I really wanted something good and simple to show them how great vegan food can be, and this was the PERFECT recipe for that! I tripled the sauce recipe because I was making two boxes of pasta, and I have tons left over, which will definitely get gobbled up very quickly! When I first tasted the sauce before mixing it with the pasta I was worried because it tasted really garlic-y, but once I mixed it in with the pasta is was perfect. I added a little lemon juice and made the homemade "parmesan" that someone had written a recipe out for in the comments section. That is also a great recipe and I'll be keeping some of that in my fridge always from now on! Laugh


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brittbritt

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Re: Basic Pesto

« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2009, 12:30:24 AM »

this is really the best pesto I've ever had, vegan or not!!! I sauteed the minced garlic in olive oil first, because I don't like the garlic aftertaste undercooked garlic sometimes leaves. I also added about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. the nutritional yeast gives it such a good cheesy flavor!

this pesto is soooo flavorful that I didn't need to add any salt or pepper!

so good! I recommend everyone try making this at least once!


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andini

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Re: Basic Pesto

« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2009, 10:37:54 PM »

As soon as I lifted the lid off the blender, I could tell this smelled GREAT! I didn't have any fresh basil, so I had to guess at the conversion to dried basil, and I think I added a bit too much because the pesto a bit thicker than I'd hoped. Better luck next time, though!


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