Easy Vegan Pesto (5 minutes!)

I LOVE this recipe! I’ve made it twice this week alone. 😊 We doubled the garlic because, well, garlic and added burst tomatoes and seitan. My husband usually hates pesto but actually likes this one.

Heavenly!

Not awful, but not good. Disappointing. Runny and too much nutritional yeast. I’ll definitely eat all of the recipe made but next time I’ll just use a regular pesto recipe and substitute a little more nuts and oil for the cheese.

This is super yummy! I followed the recipe as written except I did not need to use any water. Maybe its because I rinsed my basil first so it was a little wet before processing?

I have also made it before with walnuts instead of pine nuts and they work great too.

In any case, thanks for another great recipe!

This was a big hit! So easy! I made it to drizzle on heirloom tomatoes and to also have as a sauce for guests to add on top of vegan tacos. Guests loved it. Bursting with deliciousness! I did not need to add any water to have the perfect consistency, but may have had a little less basil than called for. Next time will double for sure.

My go to vegan pesto recipe-love it every time!

This was a great, simple recipe. My boyfriend is allergic to dairy, and I was sort of sad about having to not use cheese– but honestly, this may have been one of the best pestos I’ve ever made. I also let it blend till totally creamy smooth and it was AMAZINGLY delicate, with a unique acidity that I typically don’t get in pesto. Adding some roasted-till-browned cauliflower to your pasta also helps balance the dish, giving it a hint of sweetness. This is definitely in my regular recipe rotation now!

Just made this for the first time….amazing! I used pine nuts and Nooch (4 TBSP was just right for the cheesy-ness) and added extra sea salt and an extra clove of garlic. Can’t wait to use it on my vegan pizza tonight. Thank you for a great recipe!!

Wow! Are you kidding me? This pesto is fabulous. Full of flavor and super simple. I added half the lemon juice and used water instead of oil. Can’t wait to use as a sauce on my butternut squash pizza (if I don’t eat it all first). Thank you!

Dana, you never disappoint. Used part walnuts, part sunflower seeds, extra garlic and added a fresh jalapeño-we love spicy! Licked the spatula🥰
Happy Thanksgiving!

My absolute favorite pesto recipe (and I have been making pesto for 26 years). Best enjoyed immediately.

Made this recipe and it’s really simple, easy to make and yummyyy. Thanks so much for making this and sharing it.

Thanks so much for this! I used it as a kind of guide and then kinda changed it slightly. I wanted to use basil AND corriander AND parsely haha, so I used a whole packet each of all three, half a squeezed lemon, three tablespoons of rapeseed oil, half teaspon of pink himaylain salt, large tbp of lazy (brand name) chopped garlic in vinegar, whole packet of pinenuts (about 100g) and 5 heaped tbsp of nutrional yeast, and as much water as it needed to my preffered texture. (Nice and thick!) So basically same as yours, just more of it all! Haha. It sits in a nice little pot in the fridge and lasts me about a week.

I really love it, thanks so much! Ive been doing quite a few of your recipes. I found you via a link from this site https://runningonrealfood.com/27-easy-vegan-desserts-6-ingredients-less/

as Im very new to making and baking (about a month) and I love it! Ive bookmarked your website and so many others LOL, and will eventually get through them all! Such fun!

This is delicious -thanks! I have also tried making it with sundried tomatoes instead of basil and I think it was even better. I shall never buy a jar of processed pesto again ☺

I’m not vegan and I prefer this pesto to most others! I add extra lemon juice to keep it bright and I blanched and cooled my basil so it wouldn’t brown in the fridge

Made this pesto for a party, followed the basics of this recipe and added my own flaire. Halfway through the party I went over to try some and people were like “have you tried this pesto?!” I was like “I made it” they were like “woahhh.. we’ve been raving about it for the past 30 minutes, wondering who brought this magic…” Needess to say, they loved it.

Seriously YUMMM!!!
This is so good. I slightly increased the walnuts and olive oil, decreased the water, otherwise did it as written. I’m thrilled — I love pesto and figured a vegan version could never measure up. It totally did! It was perfect. Thank you, Dana!

Love this recipe! We used it for a base on a caprese pizza with vegan mozzarella! It was divine!! My grandson grew the basil and we whipped this pesto up quickly and easily. Thanks for the memories I made with him!!

Amazing and simple!

This was easy to make & oh so flavourful! Didn’t miss the cheese at all!

This pesto is amazing!!! It was so easy to make. In fact, I have a really crappy blender so I added the oil and water in advance (only 2 tbsp each) to get everything to mix so it was a one step process. I also used half spinach because I couldn’t get 2c packed off my plants. Still tasted great! Another really easy mom hack is freezing pureed garlic in batches and then just using a chunk instead of peeling garlic for recipes individually. Saved even more prep work.

I was nervous about using nooch but this a wonderfully bright and fresh pesto. Brava!

This was so easy. Excellent flavor. We used it on zucchini noodles and had garlic toast on the side. Wonderful! I can see many uses for this pesto. Thank you so much for sharing.

I love your website and all your recipes, but this is my favorite. I make it ALL the time with basil from my garden. How do more people not know about nutritional yeast? It makes my whole pantry smell so lovely! I have tried this with walnuts and sunflower seeds, and it is the bomb!

This recipe turned out to be awesome. I customized it by adding chilies to make it spicy 😀. Thank you so much all your recipes are very flavorful.

This is a great recipe. I used several kinds of basil from my garden, almonds, and added a couple TBS of Parmesan to the nutritional yeast for richness. I’m having some now spread on sourdough bread with kale soup. I’m looking forward to freezing the pesto to enjoy this winter!

So happy to find this yummy pesto!! Using nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt in place of parmesan cheese made my usual recipe dairy-free.

my new favourite pesto!! wow…this recipe packs tons of flavour! amazing.

This is absolutely great. I used a mixture of pine nuts (so expensive) pumpkin seeds and almonds For the “nut” part. Forgive me I did not measure any of the ingredients out carefully but added by eye!! Thank you so much for the recipe It is so tasty and easy to make.

The tastiest sauce in my life. Used it as a dressing to pasta. SO GOOD!!

This was a quick and easy recipe to follow.
I used pecans instead of pine nuts. The peach skin will make your pesto darker in color. So if you want a vibrant green pesto sauce try sticking with the pine nuts or maybe pumpkin seeds instead.
Thank you!

This is great. Easy to make. Delicious. Thank you!!!

Mmm, delicious! Very flavorful with just the right amount of everything- even better on homemade pasta. We subbed half of the basil for spinach and added crumbled feta for serving. The best pesto we’ve had in a long time! Making it again in a few days.

So so so yummy and it’s vegan ❤️
This recipe is so simple, I did use walnuts instead of pine nuts just because pine nuts are soooo expensive. I didn’t roast the walnuts and there was no weird taste. The nutritional yeast adds creaminess and a great taste, plus it’s Vitamin B12 💕 Highly recommend. I also doubled the garlic cause garlic is life.

Soooooooo delicious. I’ve made this a few times now and love it. I will never buy store bought pesto again.

Loved this recipe! I made it for my family and even my 4 and 2 year old boys loved it on their spaghetti! I had to add the liquid (water and oil) pretty quickly because of the size of my blender (it was too large to pour slowly) and it still turned out beautifully. Thanks for the inspiration!

OMG. This was so good! I made this last night for some pizza. I was nervous about the taste because I forgot to buy lemons, but it was sooo good. It honestly didn’t even need the lemon (although next time I’ll give it a try with). I don’t have the strongest blender, so next time I would grind up my pine nuts With my mortar and pestle, but this was so easy to make. Will definitely be doing this one again.

YUMO!!!! Super tasty and super healthy. Living in Australia my herb garden in winter has an abundance of parsley so I substitute the basil and in summer I use my basil. Love recipes that are seasonal and this works perfectly. Love, love, love this recipe. Thank you xx

I was sceptical. I’ve made recipes before, that I’ve found online on other sites, that have turned out less than expected. I just made it a few minutes ago and I’m blown away. Not only is it the best pesto I’ve ever made but it’s the best pesto I’ve ever tasted. I made it with sunflower seeds and some basil I grew in my container garden. Thanks!

I swear this turned out even more delicious than the non-vegan pesto I made last year. Instead of fresh garlic I used fermented garlic, turned out beautifully. Going to serve it with some potatoes tonight for a potato salad. Thanks for the great recipe!

This is my go-to base pesto recipe! Quick & simple clean ingredients. It always comes out great. I’ll sometimes swap the nuts for walnut or even pumpkin seeds. If I want spice, I’ll add in some red pepper flake. Great recipe!

Oh my! I know I shouldn’t, but I could eat this by the spoonful! Knocks traditional pesto to the ground! Be sure to follow the steps and blend all the ingredients without the oil and water beforehand, otherwise (as I’ve found out) you will be unable to blend into a smooth sauce.

This was really good! Thanks! Xx

Love this pesto! We don’t eat a strict vegan diet but love to have it without dairy and it tastes amazing. So easy to make and makes me happy after picking the basil from my garden!

Love this recipe! Made it with walnuts and without oil. It was perfect!

Easily the best pesto I’ve ever tasted. It’s the only vegan pesto I’ve ever tried and I’m not willing to try others. I come back to this recipe time and time again because it is supremely delicious.

I followed the recipe exactly ( except my
Garlic cloves were huge so I only used two). It was delicious!! I served it over pasta tossed with veggie sausage, broccoli rabe, and sundries tomatoes. Then I roped with some toasted pine nuts. Mmmm mmm.

Great recipe! Served this pesto as a dip at a cocktail party – everyone raved about it & could not believe it was dairy-free. I tweaked it slightly by leaving out the raw garlic and the water; used walnuts instead of pine nuts; and added a very generous bunch of parsley to the mix…scrumptious! I’ll be returning to this recipe again – many thanks!!

This pesto is divine. I used freshly cut basil and squeezed real lemons rather than store bought lemon juice. Loved the freshness that the real lemon brought to it. Hands down my favorite pesto. I have been vegan for 3 1/2 years now and almost exclusively cook from your recipes several times a week over this time. Always reliable, easy, delicious food and a huge variety. Sorry for never telling you how great you are and how much your work is appreciated! I bet there are many other silent devour-ers of your site like me. Please keep them coming!

PS. For those of you new to the site, check out the BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches and Southwest Tofu Scramble. There are not words. Just do it. Now. Really, now.

We have plenty of basil in the garden, so I decided to make this today. It is a super delicious pesto. We have allergies in our family, so I looked for a dairy free recipe. I am so happy I found this one. I have made pesto in the past, without adding the parmesan, and it was ok. This one is amazing. The only change I made was that I toasted the pine nuts before adding to the processor. And I used 1/8 cup olive oil and no water.
Thanks for the great recipe. Will be making this often!

Awesome and fast pesto! I used the food processor and subbed sunflower seeds in for pine nuts. Delicious with pasta, chicken and veggies 😊
Thanks MB! 🙌🏼

I love pesto but hadn’t made it since I thought it would be a time consuming effort. This recipe was fast and delicious – picked fresh basil from my garden and the results are just delicious. Will be making more and freezing it!!! Many thanks for the great recipe!

Ok. Had to fess up….I used this to make a creamy pesto sauce. Back in the day (30 years ago) I used to make chicken in a creamy pesto sauce. I haven’t found (until now) a pesto that would work in a vegan version. It was absolutely perfect!!!! Thank you for this recipe!!!

Once again….you hit it out of the park with this one!!!!! This is fast, easy and out of this world!!!!

We have missed pesto since going plant based three years ago. This recipe is a hit for our family and so easy to make. We make it without salt and oil and it’s great. Thank you!🌱❤️

Had a bumper crop of basil and decided to try this. Made it with walnuts instead of pine nuts. It was delicious and my son (picky non-vegan 22 yo) thought so too! We loved the bite of the raw garlic and did not find it to be too noochy. (My nooch was a bit old and probably milder, and I used 3Tbsp.) Lots of flavour for just a few ingredients and a tiny amount of effort. Thx!

I just made this for dinner. I gave it a four out of five stars since I preferred this to the store brand. The only reason I gave it four and not five stars is that although I doubled the recipe, I feel like it didn’t make as much as I expected. But note, the pesto does go a long way!
My husband, although he liked the fresh ingredients, gave it three out of five stars. I think because it wasn’t what he expected. I did add sun-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives. I did not have lemon or lime juice, so I substituted orange juice, which I read is the next best thing. I could not taste it. I also used veggie rotini. Delicious!

I think the texture of this turned out perfectly, but a bit too much nutritional yeast for my liking! If you are not used to the nooch flavour, I would add significantly less

I didn’t love this, it was way too garlicky for my tastes, and for my kids! It’s also the first pesto I’ve made with an oil and water mix, which I thought gave it an odd consistency. I’d definitely make it again but with just one garlic clove, and no water and more oil :-)

As a non-dairy gal it is super tricky to get my traditional cheese loving parents to admit anything other than the real deal is even edible. This pesto blew us all away! I followed your recipe exactly and used pine nuts and it was creamy, bright, and so so freaking good. Thank you so much for helping me convert the old sticklers!

Delicious and very easy! It turned out a bit liquid for my taste so I added a few pieces of avocado and it was a delicious & creamy addition!

I made the recipe as an attempt to please my mom, who had to go on a dairy-free diet and was completely skeptical of “that thing called ‘nutritional yeast’.” Well, we can honestly say the vegan version almost beats the traditional pesto. Bear in mind that if you want a stronger flavor, pour just a little bit of water into the mix and don’t save on olive oil.

I was nervous to make this recipe without oil, but it turned out just as good! (I’m avoiding oil for 10 days while I’m on a cleanse.) I added two cups of fresh Spinach, since I had it; and it’s quite common to make it that way in Peruvian cuisine, which is what I grew up with. I served it with spiraled sweet potato noodles. Mmmmmm! Such a great combo!

So yummy, we loved this!!! I made a few modifications due to a lack of pine and walnuts, so I used cashews instead. I also added parsley. Used with gluten free spaghetti. Highly recommend and would make again.

I like this recipe a lot. It is the first time I made pesto. It turned out great! I had to improvise a little, using cashews for the nuts and avocado oil instead of olive oil. I will try to make it with walnuts and olive oil next time I have those on hand!

Yet another amazing vegan version of a traditional dish. I made this over spaghetti with chopped tomatoes and fried shiitake mushrooms. Lovely!

It’s soooo good! Just made it and I’m impressed with this beautiful flavor!

I really wanted pesto for dinner but only had parsley and walnuts so modified this recipe a little. It was really delicious and I will add it to my regular repertoire.

I made this today and it’s delicious! I added a couple of tablespoons of white wine vinegar and turned it into a dressing for a salad of roasted pumpkin, spinach, walnuts, and fetta. The taste was perfect. Thank you for the recipe!

First time making pesto and oh my gosh- it turned out amazing! Subbed for walnuts and the flavor was unreal. I really think the nutritional yeast really took the flavor profile up a notch. I was literally licking the bowl. We served it over protein pasta but will try with our soybean and lentil pastas next. Thanks for always having wonderful vegan recipes, Dana! I love them!

Excellent! I made 10 servings in my Vitamix in under an hour and froze it in small containers. Now all I have to do for dinners is cook the pasta! Btw, the bulk of that hour was spent removing the basil leaves from the stems. The actual recipe preparation took no more than 8 minutes.

Delicious! I made some modifications to accommodate what we had on hand. Spinach + cilantro in place of basil, Extra garlic and half the lemon. I look forward to making it with basil when I get some. I’ve made so many of your recipes and love them all! Thank you

I normally absolutely love all of Minalmist Baker’s recipes but this one is a no for me. I followed her recipe to a T and it simply didn’t taste right and I’m a HUGE pesto lover.

So easy and delicious! I followed the recipe precise and it had exactly enough garlic and lemon juice! 3tbs of olive oil and 3tbs of water were more than enough as the pesto was quite liquidy that way. Delicious over my lasagna and on my ciabatta!

Best diy pesto! Easy to make and great for pasta, pizza, or to use as a condiment.

Ugh, this is a staple. I always eat spoonfuls out the fridge! Delicious as is.

Nice and easy however 3 cloves of garlic was way too much, it killed the rest of flavours, I can still taste it the next morning. I’d add it to taste or roast before adding. Also I’ll try roasting pine nuts next time.

Easy and delicious. I like how you can just blend it all together before adding the oil. I don’t like to get the processor out because I’m lazy, but it was definitely worth it.

I made this with plans to save it for some pasta tonight, but it was so good I ate almost all of it with a spoon!

Was very delicious, but a little too tangy. I’ll just use less lemon juice next time, as everything else was perfect :)