Almond pesto (Vegan basil pesto)

This Almond pesto is a vegan basil pesto recipe with fresh basil leaves and almonds that tastes delicious like traditional pesto. And I'm sure you will make this easy vegan pesto recipe again and again!

Traditional basil pesto (Pesto alla Genovese) is a sauce made with basil leaves, pine nuts, olive oil, and hard cheese like parmesan cheese. It is usually hand-pounded using a mortar pestle and hence the name pesto (1). 

After so many trials, I came up with this pesto recipe. And I made this pesto recipe numerous times, and it tasted delicious every single time.

I always weigh the ingredients to make the basil pesto. And I strongly recommend weighing the ingredients as we cannot measure basil leaves accurately using measuring cups. But if you do not have access to the weighing scale, I have mentioned rough estimates in cups.

Ingredients

Fresh basil leaves - I used homegrown basil leaves to make this pesto recipe. And you can also get them easily in markets. Pluck the basil leaves from its stems and wash them well. Dry them very well, and there should not be any water in them.

Almonds - Traditional pesto uses pine nuts. I used raw almonds in this recipe, but toasted almonds also go well. You could use any nuts like pine nuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts to make the pesto. You can rotate the nuts to change the taste of pesto every time you make it.

Extra virgin olive oil - Olive oil gives taste and consistency to the sauce. However, we want to store the pesto sauce for a long time, so do not reduce the olive oil. Else we might not get the sauce consistency to the pesto.

Garlic - One or two pods of garlic will flavor the pesto. As we are using raw garlic, do not add more garlic. It might get pungent. You can skip the garlic if you do not like it.

Salt - I used pink salt, but sea salt also works here.

Pepper powder - Freshly ground black pepper will add spiciness to this pesto. If you want to make it spicier, you can add red chili flakes also.

Lemon juice - Lemon juice will prevent basil leaves from oxidizing, and pesto will be vibrant green.

Instructions

• Take a food processor or blender jar.
• Add almonds, garlic, black pepper powder, salt, basil leaves, olive oil, and lime juice to the food processor in that order. We want to grind the almonds first and then basil leaves.

• Blend everything to form a rough paste. If you wish, you can grind it into a smooth paste. I like it to be a little gritty.

• Store the pesto sauce in the clean and dry glass jars. Top the almond pesto with some olive oil to prevent oxidization.

Recipe Notes & Variations

• After washing basil leaves, we need to dry them thoroughly. There should not be any water left out in them. Water will spoil the sauce, and we cannot store it for more days.
• To dry the basil leaves, spread the leaves on a kitchen towel and leave them aside for a couple of hours. If I am out of time, I use my dehydrator to dry the leaves. Basil leaves will take 10 to 15 minutes to dry thoroughly.
• Don't like almonds? Cashews will also make good and creamy pesto. You can even use half almonds and half cashews. I like cashews as they will make pesto creamy.
• If you have to make nut-free pesto, use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds to make this pesto.
• In this recipe, I am using a food processer. But you could make pesto using a blender or Nutri bullet as well.
• This is a naturally gluten-free recipe.
• You could add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast to make it more cheesy.

Serving suggestions

This almond pesto sauce is a versatile sauce that you can use in many ways. I am listing out some of my favorite ways to serve this vegan pesto sauce.

• Steam or bake some veggies and top it with this pesto sauce. You could add some cooked chickpeas or beans and serve it as a salad meal. This pesto veggies salad will taste delicious even if it is cold, so this makes a healthy and filling lunch box item.
• If you feel that quinoa is bland, then seasoning quinoa with this basil pesto will make it delicious and flavorful. Add some veggies, and pesto quinoa salad can be a complete meal.
• Though I do not like to cook this almond basil pesto sauce, I use this homemade pesto as pizza sauce. This basil sauce will fix your pizza cravings for sure.
• You could use this sauce as a sandwich spread and as a taco sauce.
• Pesto pasta with veggies will be a good meal for any day.

Storage

As I am not using water in this recipe, this recipe keeps well for about a month in the refrigerator. Make sure to dry the basil leaves after cleaning them with water thoroughly.
If you want to store this almond pesto for more days, you can freeze it. Freeze the pesto in ice cube trays or small silicone molds so that we can thaw the required amount easily.

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