Easy Vegan Pesto (5 minutes!)

I have made many a pesto, vegan and nonvegan, and this one is my favourite. All the amounts for ingredients and seasonings are perfect.

I just made this and loved it. I’m a new vegan and needed something fast to throw on rice noodles. It was perfect. I didn’t have 2 cups basil on hand so I did one cup basil and one cup spinach. So happy to find a vegan pesto that tastes great and that can be made so quick. 🫶🏻

This pesto is easy and delicious. I am using it in grilled cheese sandwiches and serving along with your one pot tomato soup.
It’s been raining for couple days, good ol’ comfort food.
Trina

Excellent! I have made vegan pesto many times and I have to say this is by far the best. A+

I love this recipe to the point that I have started growing large amounts of basil in my garden to feed my pesto addiction. One of my favorite thing to make with it is a marinated and grilled portobello mushroom pesto burger. Marinate the mushroom in an italian dressing then grill or broil. Toast a cracked wheat bun and put the mushroom on cup side up. Put a generous scoop of pesto on the mushroom. And if you need more pesto, spread it on the bun as well. Then top with a thick slice of red onion and thick slice of a meaty tomato like beefsteak. Devoure.

Delicious! Just added this to some GF rotini with some sauteed mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes – fantastic!

This is our household’s favorite pesto recipe!! We discovered it back when we were vegan and continue to use it now that we are not.

I often make it with half spinach and half basil (or all spinach) if I don’t have enough basil on hand and it is still delicious!! Though the fully basil version is the most scrumptious!!

We are huge nutritional yeast fans but even friends we have over that are “typically not fans” drool over this recipe. 😊

I’m not even vegan but this is the best pesto I’ve ever had. It has me licking out my food processor. I made it with my girlfriend because she’s allergic to dairy so we wanted a vegan recipe. It’s better than pesto with parmesan. I would marry this pesto. I would eat this pesto with every meal. I would drink this pesto. I added extra garlic and salt so if you want the greatest pesto ever probably do that to. It was so good. We made extra and I’m eating it tomorrow and I’m so excited. Happy new year!!!

I made it without the nutritional yeast (not something I keep on hand) and without garlic (avoiding due to FODMAP sensitivity) but replaced some of the olive oil with garlic-infused olive oil so still got the garlic flavour. Easy to make and delicious. Have made it several times now. Thanks

I had to use the sunflower seeds and take out nutritional yeast, due allergies. Turned out nice. Thanks.

I was looking for a vegan pesto that did not use avocado as the oil. As a person who is not a fan of nutritional yeast, I was very worried about this recipe, but because MinimalistBaker has never let me down, I figured I would try it. I LOVE it!!!! I love it even more because it does not require the expensive pine nuts! Thank you for another great recipe!!

I am not vegan but trying to cut back on animal products and a fan of nutritional yeast. End of my basil here in the northeast and cut all my basil plants before the cold weather hits in. Decided to try your recipe… I didn’t even tell my husband who is italian that there was no cheese in the recipe said it was perfect. Froze a few containers for my vegan daughter I know she will be a fan. Terrific healthier option for pesto thanks for a delicious recipe! PS I used walnuts

Perfect, quick pesto recipe! I received a giant bag of basil from a friend and was able to use it all up with this recipe. Swapped ACV for lemon, was generous with the nooch, and cracked some black pepper. Was lazy and threw all ingredients in at once and it still turned out. Definitely would have better texture if I had chosen to follow the method here. All this to say, this tastes great and I can’t wait to throw this over pasta later!! Thank you!

Hi! I learned a handy trick for those who find garlic too strong. You can drop the whole cloves in the boiling pasta water for about 30 seconds and that makes them less sharp. Kinda cool. I made this and subbed pepitas for the walnuts. Thank you so much!

I’ve made this many, many times. I usually double the recipe. Just wanted to say I make it almost exactly as written except I throw in a couple extra cloves of garlic and use only fresh lemon juice, which I also increase by a tablespoon. I also always use roasted walnuts. I grow my own basil so I usually have lots on hand. It’s really such a delicious combination of ingredients. I put it on just about everything. Thanks for the great recipe!

Made it to recipe and it was waaay too garlicky for my taste! I had to make a second batch with no garlic and combine the two, and it is still almost has too much garlic flavour. I will probably only use one clove next time around.

I’m not vegan or vegetarian but my daughter is allergic to cheese, so when I’m making pesto I usually use this recipe so she can eat it when she visits. Less cheese is probably better for me too and I find the nutritional yeast adds enough flavor so I don’t miss it. I also use it for a basil roast chicken recipe and it works! Really glad I found this.

Thank you for this recipe. I doubled the recipe and subbed a tomato for the water. The next time I made it, I substituted tomato juice (I just canned some tomatoes and had lots to spare) for the water. I think it tastes even better with a bit of tomato flavour. I did blend with my Vitamix, so I don’t see any flecks of tomatoes in my pesto.

I love love love this recipe. Pesto is one of my favorite pasta toppings and being a vegan I did not think there could be a substitute this tasty. I grow basil just so that I can make this often!
Thank you so much,
Sarah

I made this recipe, followed it exactly as you posted. It was delicious! I can’t wait to have this again! thanks for all your fantastic recipes!

Made this today subbing out about 1/2 the nutritional yeast with Vegan Parm. Super nutty and yummy.

This recipe was very easy to follow, minimal time to make, and with readily available ingredients. It is delicious as well!

Delicious and so versatile. I had some basil in the fridge but not enough – so I used fresh cilantro to fill in. Definitely a variation on standard pesto, but super good! Also I didn’t have lemon so I used some lime juice. It was delicious. I especially love that you can moderate the consistency with more or less water so it can be either a spread (like for bruschetta or other apps) or a sauce. I put it over vegan gnocchi and wilted some spinach into the dish at the end. So good!

Using fresh basil from my garden, I followed the recipe to the letter. This recipe makes a pesto that is cheesy and delicious.

Overall great, easy, tasty recipe!

We had this with pasta, collard greens and steamed green peas. What a beautiful bowl of green! Such an easy quick recipe that’s truly delicious.

Your vegan pesto recipe is my go-to pesto recipe. We love it!

Easiest and BEST vegan pesto ever! I used my Ninja Chopper to make this since my Vitamix is too big for the quantity of pesto I was making. Thanks for another amazing recipe, Dana!

Your site is always my first go-to when I’m looking for a recipe! Loved this one like all the other random recipes I’ve tried, as usual! Thank you! I added a couple broccoli stems from 2 broccoli heads into the mix!

I am a terrible, terrible cook so I just don’t do it. I had to repot and trim my 2 basil plants (terrible Gardner too) and I thought the only reason I bought these 2 plants was to make pesto so I’m not throwing out the leaves, I am going to look for an easy vegan recipe. This was juar perfect. I had to add 6-8 T of h20 first in order to get my Vitamix to work but it tastes so great even though I have a terrible cold. I used heaping Tablespoons of walnuts and extra garlic and I am still in shock that I made something that tasted so good. Thank you for a great recipe.

My family loves this pesto, so simple to knock up as a midweek meal and goes with loads of different things. We’ve tried a few different recipes but this is the one we always come back to and recommend to friends.

This was so easy to make and so delicious. Thank you!!

I triple this and make it monthly, use it on almost everything…I don’t use pine nuts, but use all other nuts /seeds…thank you so much for Great recipe

I’m currently doing the Daniel fast so I wanted a vegan alternative to trafitional pesto. I’m also omitting salt from my diet while I do the Daniel fast. So I made this and omitted the salt. It tastes amazing without the salt. I don’t think I’ll be adding salt in the future. I used a garlic infused Olive oil.

Thanks so much for sharing!

I wanted a pesto recipe to make me feel I was truly eating a healthy choice and this was the perfect recipe! I loved it. I prefer walnuts to the pine and did add additional water to get a saucier product. Thanks so much for sharing your creation;)

How can I even express how much I love this recipe? It is mouth wateringly delicious, as well as compliant with all of my annoying dietary restrictions. I make double and triple batches because we devour it so quickly in our household. Am I obsessed? Most definitely! Thank you for sharing this delightful deliciousness with all of us. <3

This was the best vegan pesto I’ve found so far! I used cashews for pinenuts & apple cider vinegar for lemon juice. Had it with fresh veggies and gnocchi.

Wow! Awesome recipe, the flavour is out of this world. I’ve never really come at pesto but that’s because I’ve never had it like this! Husband can’t eat pine nuts so I used cashews – amazing 🥰

I can’t believe how unbelievably good this recipe is! I’ve used it so far as a pizza sauce and on pasta, and both were delicious! So happy to have discovered a perfect vegan pesto. :)

This is my favourite pesto and so easy!! Thank you!!

Awesome basic recipe!

Why did no one ever tell me for the first half century of my life, how amazingly delicious pesto is? This recipe is perfect–I do sometimes substitute nuts based on what I have, and I also learned to double it (works better in my food processor), but this on a gf English muffin topped with a garden tomato, is my favorite go-to meal!!

This is delicious! I made mine with cashews instead of pinenuts and I can’t have nutritional yeast so I used miso paste. Absolutely delicious I’m eating it right now!

Used walnuts. Would prefer recipe have exact amounts instead of 3-4, etc. Made it a little confusing for a newbie. Tastes ok, but can hardly taste the basil – not sure if I did something wrong or what I would even do differently. My kids are chowing with some pita crackers though, so it’s decent :-D

This is delicious! I was really craving a plant based pesto pizza so googled vegan pesto and came across your recipe. I had forgotten how good making pesto makes the kitchen smell so not only am I having my pesto pizza tonight but my little apartment smells heavenly.

Thank you!

I made this for my vegan friend and I like it better than the pesto I made for myself with cheese.

It’s so easy and absolutely delicious!

So similar to the recipe that I used for years before becoming vegan. The lemon juice adds a nice tang and helps to maintain the vibrant color of the pesto. I will add that if you cover your jar of pesto with a layer of olive oil, it will keep for several weeks in the fridge. Pull it out for a bit and then mix it all together and the flavors will have married fantastically. Salute.

Thank you, it turned out really great! I used cashews, as I didn’t have any walnuts or sunflowers seeds available.

I made one version of this oil free for my husband who loved it! I also used sunflower seeds. I spread this on sour dough pizza and it was spectacular. Thank you so much.

I made this with sunflower seeds and it’s absolutely delicious. Planning to make a bunch more out of my successful basil plants and freeze it for the winter. It will be lovely to have a taste of summer when it’s 10 below.

Very yummy. I made this in a winter lockdown with no basil around so used tired looking silverbeet, parsley, and NZ spinach that I sweated a little in the oil, before adding a few stalks of fresh parsley and fennel stalks. Sadly I have to share the results so may be raiding the garden again sooner than expected to have a steady supply!

I love this pesto!! Makes amazing pesto chicken. Just coat chicken generously with pesto and bake. Great added to salads. Topped stuffed hot peppers and quinoa with the pesto too.

TL;DR: delicious, lemony, make a bunch to freeze, use part cashews to save money

I may have commented on this recipe a few years ago but I feel the need to comment again because this is THE BEST PESTO RECIPE! It is perfectly lemon-y and bursting with flavor. I am vegan but my omnivorous family likes it too!

I have made this recipe for the last 4 years but we always run out in a month or two so I wanted to try and make enough for a year.

This year I took 3 crowded potted basil pots from Costco wholesale ($8) broke them up into clumps and planted them in two raised beds. I ended up with an entire forest of basil.

After plucking leaves from the stems I ended up with 60+ compressed cups of basil which turned into about around 18 pints of pesto. I used part cashews and part pine nuts because of cost. Half is frozen in jars and the other half in muffin tins and then put into Stashers bags for a quick grab and add to scrambled “eggs” tofu, pizza, pasta, or on grilled “cheese”. Needless to say, I scaled this recipe up a lot.

I doubt it will last a year as I gave away 2 pints and I think my kids have eaten 3 or so more. I think I will need to add another raised bed so I can grow even MORE basil next year. Thank you for this delicious recipe!

I made this tonight with walnuts and fresh basil. Delicious easy in food processor. So good with excellent discussion how to adjust seasonings. Low and no oil options so appreciated.
Your recipes are spot on for use no oil vegans who don’t want to give up taste.
When I saw the sheralzai’s post on Instagram with you, YES, they found you too

So so so delicious and i’m so glad that you give us tips on how to make it tangier, nuttier, etc cause that really helped me out when adjusting it to how i like pesto. Such a great recipe and i will definitely be making it again. Pairs really well with some homemade vegan mushroom ravioli!

Another awesome recipe from Minimalist Baker. I loved this pesto – better than I remember traditional pesto being from my pre-vegan days. I used walnuts and it worked well. I like the hints for how to adjust the seasonings that are included in these recipes. I can usually identify that my food needs “something” just never sure what that “something” is. Based on the suggestions included in the recipe, I am able to adjust seasonings to my liking. I added a little extra salt and nutritional yeast.
This pesto was great on its own (I could have just eaten by the spoonful!) and I enjoyed it with zoodles and carrot spirals, both topped with cherry tomatoes.

i can’t stand the nutritional yeast flavor. it’s too strong and it overshadows the rest of the ingredients. i’m gonna try it without it next time.

I am not vegan but cannot eat cheese. I have used nutritional yeast in other recipes but have not had one for pesto. This recipe helped with proportions and was excellent. I have not used lemon juice in pesto before but this added a brightness that helped to balance the yeast. Next time I might not use quite as much but, in all fairness, I doubled the recipe as my basil has been growing like crazy this summer.
I highly recommend this recipe for pesto!

Loved it. I skipped the water and I used half cashews and half walnuts because sometimes walnuts can be a bit bitter, and added 1 Tbs white miso to up that umami flavor. This will definitely be my staple recipe as I freeze up all the basil from the garden. Thanks for the recipe!!

Oh my goodness this was so delicious! I made it as written, but oil-free with veggie broth. Served it over gluten free brown rice pasta with roasted veggies and a little vegan parmesan. Thank you for such a yummy recipe!

This was amazing. It was vibrant and delicious and I found myself eating it with a spoon before I even added pasta. I previously had tried other recipes that called for a vegan Parmesan and the flavor was just not the same. What you did with the nutritional yeast really makes a difference. This is my go to pesto recipe from now on

It really was excellent!!

OMG! It’s exquisite. 🙏 That’s my 1st vegan pesto ever, I love cheese but didn’t find one second it was missing…
I rarely cook and often with random results (weird too sticky pancakes for ex.🥴), but this time it’s a wow! Even if it’s just putting stuff in a blender.😁 Thanks for making me proud of my cooking skills!😋

Best pesto I have ever made, hands down. The flavor is so amazing and well balanced, it makes me realize how distracting the Parmesan is in traditional pasta recipes.

OMG SO YUMMY!!!! I just threw this together from fresh basil and tomatoes from the local farmers market (I made the salad with roasted tomatoes). Hands down the best pesto I have ever made (I used walnuts since it’s what I had in the pantry) and the salad is DIVINE, simple but such complex, satisfying flavors. My picky husband raved and gushed and ate two big bowls. We had corn on the cob as an accompaniment. Perfect summer meal. We have leftovers so I’m curious to see how it holds up for next day eating. Thank you for another delicious, fail proof recipe! Minimalist Baker was the first place I looked for a vegan pesto recipe (since your recipes are such reliable winners) and, as usual, you delivered!!

I made this recipe for the first time after a year of recipeless veggie pesto and finally realize that all my troubles have been due to my commitment to an absurd volume of nuts 😂
I swapped the water and oil volumes, added a bit more salt and lemon to my personal taste and am happily enjoying this for dinner! Great recipe!

DELICIOUS! Easy to make and really liked the flavour! (used walnuts)

I made this tonight with brown rice spiral noodles from Trader Joe’s. I used walnuts (1/3 cup) and did everything else as recipe suggested. Thank you, my whole family enjoyed and I have 2 young daughters who can be on the picky side.

Love this recipe!! Always make it with walnuts and it’s fabulous.

Amazing! I didn’t know what to expect, but this is an incredible recipe. It will definitely be a staple in our home. Thank you!

I made this on Monday and used it as a dipping sauce with roasted cauliflower and the last two days I’ve had it as a pasta pesto dish! Tastes amazing !! And gets better each day will double up next time, thanks so much for sharing !!

Thank you! Made this oil free so threw in an extra tbs of walnuts. I will make this again and again!!!!!

So fast and easy, SO delicious! Will make again and again.

I made this today as my basil plant had lots of extra leaves. I used my food processor. I did not use any water. I had walnuts. I used 3 tablespoons of EVOO. I only used 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast as I was unsure if it would taste too strong with 3-4 tablespoons. Otherwise I did it exactly as directed. I thought it was very fresh and savory at the same time. I had it mixed in with some gluten free pasta, but would also like to try on a pizza. In the future, I will try adding 1 or two more tablespoons of the nutritional yeast, but it still tastes very nice with just 2 tablespoons. I guess it just depends on how “cheesy” you want the flavor to be.

I made this for the first time today and I LOVE it! Definitely my go to recipe from now on!

A truly perfect recipe. Glad I made double the quantity as half of it was gone before dinner was served….Coming from a non cheese eating family. Thank you MB!!