Been living for all things pesto lately! Pesto on my sandwich, pesto on my noodles, my grilled cheese, in my lasagna, you name it I’ve probably added pesto to it.
Last summer, while the world was still shut down I picked up a new hobby. Actually many of new hobbies since, well, what else was there to do? One of my favorite hobbies though was gardening. I’ve never really had a green thumb…at all but I thought I would give it a go. I mean it was 2020, I don’t think much worse could happen. So I cheated (a little) and started with some already sprouted herbs and vegetables and grew them into this insane garden. I’d like to take a moment to thank Mother Nature for backing me up though as I’m sure I over watered and under watered everything at least once a week but I’d like to think she had my back with rain or sunny days when those moments happened.
Although my garden is far from blossoming at the moment as the roots are buried under snow, I was able to preserve some things from it to last me all year including my basil. Since I’ve been living for all things pesto, I decided to take a stab at homemade pesto with a vegan twist.
Don’t worry, I’m not going full vegan – I don’t think I’d ever go full on meatless but last year when I started a partnership with Reducetarian, an organization with a mission to improve human health and protect the environment and farm animals by reducing consumption, I decided to start cutting it out one day a week and trying to limit myself to only having meat during one meal each day. Crazy to think how much meat I was eating looking back on it.
So while I won’t be going full on vegan, I guess you could say I’m doing partial vegan. Making vegan dishes here and there and reducing the amount of meat I intake. Starting with switching my go-to store bought pesto with this new homemade Vegan Basil Pesto. It’s super easy to make and you don’t need any fancy kitchen gadgets. I used my small chopper but you could also use a food processor or blender. For full step by step instructions, see recipe below and my post over on Reducetarian here.
For more vegan inspiration, check out my other vegan dishes here: Mini Vegetable Pot Pies, Spaghetti and Meat-less Meatballs and Nut Butter Green Smoothie.
Vegan Basil Pesto
Ingredients
- ½ cup toasted pine nuts
- 2 tbsps lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp pepper
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup vegan parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Combine pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor until chopped.
- Add in olive oil and pulse until creamy and smooth. Small chunks from the pine nuts and pieces of basil will remain. Add extra olive oil if you like your pesto more creamy.
- Add dairy-free cheese and pulse once or twice to combine.
Notes
Recipe slightly adapted from Love & Lemons
This post was in partnership with Reducetarian– an exciting 2020 opportunity that will continue into 2021! All opinions and photos are my own. Thank you so much for supporting my favorite brands that help keep Blog Appetit up and running!