I use and adore this old recipe. Instead of using dairy as is customary, nutritional yeast is employed. tasty on bread, omelets, sandwiches, pasta, etc. For a rich flavor boost after completion, try adding slices of sun-dried tomato. Additionally, it freezes beautifully.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 15 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 16 servings |
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup pine nuts
- ⅔ cup olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 bunch fresh basil leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until lightly toasted.
- Gradually mix the pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, and basil in a food processor, and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Reviews
Love this recipe, I usually double it and freeze what’s left for quick additions to soups, breads, pastas.
Delicious. My vegan sister is visiting, so I picked out a few recipes. This recipe wins, hands down as a favorite for vegans and non vegans! Doubled the recipe and used pre chopped garlic in water. Yum yum. Will gladly make again and again!!
Just became a vegetarian and was thrilled to find this recipe. Excellent! I didn’t change anything. I’ll use this in pasta but also great as a dip.
Being vegan and a novice pesto maker, this recipe seemed easy and the reviews saying they just put everything in a blender sold me! I only had walnuts instead of pine nuts and cilantro instead of basil. I used 2 packages of frozen spinach, thawed. I also added lemon juice and nutmeg. I put it all in my blender, adding the olive oil as I went. WOW! I mixed a bunch with spaghetti and roasted veggies and froze the rest in a silicone ice cube tray. The Italian hubby went nuts for it, almost preferring it over tomato sauce!
Quick, healthy, and tastes like pesto!
Next time I’m not going to roast the pine nuts as I think their raw flavor makes pesto taste a lot fresher. Also might change the amount of yeast next time, but overall this is a really good recipe. Everybody in my family enjoyed it a lot and I’m definitely making it again, just with those two tweaks. Thank you so much for sharing!
Followed precisely. Amazing!
Made this a few times when we had vegan guests. It all hinges on the specific yeast’s flavor, which you can’t control. I was not a big fan but it was OK.
Delicious!!! I used almonds instead of pine nuts for environmental reasons.
It’s delicious! I would recommend using less garlic, though. I used walnuts, almonds, and Brazil nuts (because that’s all I had) and it worked just as well!
Just not the same as the original, but I will continue to make it for my wife. It wasn’t bad at all, just different.
Added some cilantro leaves, roasted cashew nuts and half a red pepper for the spicy moment. Yummy.
First of all… what an adventure! A smoky pesto that will make you smile! We served this recipe on our homemade noodles with some sun-dried tomatoes, a squeeze of lemon (a subtle yet enjoyable zesty addition), and a touch of roasted pine-nuts and basil as garnish! The only challenge that we found with this recipe was the vagueness of the term “bunch” in reference to the basil. As we were picking our basil fresh from the plant, as I’m sure many of you do, we just weren’t sure where a “bunch” begins and where a “bunch” ends. However, this wasn’t a deal-breaker and with some taste-testing and fine-tuning we were able to make it work. Overall, we give this recipe a thumbs up! Thanks for a good one CANDIEDVIOLET!
Better than traditional cheeses pesto!
Easy and yummy!
I took the advice of the other comments and used additional greens (actually juicing greens mix) and this was fantastic. Flavorful. nomnomnom
I am always trying to find a nice easy vegan Pesto to make. This is it. I added some Vegan Parm cheese yummy. This time I had Basil, next time I am going to try arugula. I didn’t have pine nuts, so replaced with toasted Pecan’s
I toasted almond slivers instead of pine nuts and this pesto is amazing. Vegan and non-vegans love it!!
I have made this recipe three times now. The first time I didn’t have the nutritional yeast with me, so made it without it. It was good, probably 3 or 4 stars. The last two times we’ve made it with the yeast and it’s so much better. I would recommend cutting back on the oil. Last time I used half a cup and it still seemed too much. Serve with fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, and extra pine nuts. Delicious!
Excellent. Also used walnuts (instead of pine nuts), and also added a little lemon juice. Will make it again and again!
I added more basil and used half the oil and it was yummy!