Vegan Pesto
I bought a basil plant from my local grocery store because how can you not? It's cheap, smells amazing and brightens up a home in winter! Not to mention the endless recipes you can add it to!
At the top of my list: pesto. I have been trying to keep dairy to a minimum, so I found this vegan pesto recipe from Food52 and tweaked it a bit. I chose to use avocado oil because Jason and I have started to incorporate it into our diet. It has a high smoke point which means it's not only good in dressings (or pesto) but also good for cooking! It is very versatile thanks to its mild taste and comes straight from a pressed avocado, which means you're getting all the healthy fats. You can read more about it here.
You're also getting all of the nutrients in spinach and omega-3's from the walnuts. The "cheesy" flavor that replaces the need for Parmesan cheese comes from nutritional yeast. It is full of SO many vitamin's, especially the B vitamin. If you want to read more about it you can do so here. It improves immune function, improves digestion and is loaded with micro-nutrients just to name a few.
This pesto is perfect on pasta, spaghetti squash, chicken, eggs or basically anything that you want to taste amazing. It comes together in minutes and stores well in the fridge! How I did it below.
Vegan Pesto
Makes: ~1 1/2 cups
Prep Time: 7 min
Ingredients:
1 cup tightly packed fresh basil
1 cup tightly packed spinach
1/2 cup walnuts
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 cup avocado oil (you could also use extra-virgin olive oil)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
salt & pepper to taste
Instructions:
1. Add everything to a food processor and blend.
2. Once combined you can process until you reach your desired consistency. I like mine a little chunky still.
3. Store in a mason jar or tupperware container in the fridge. It should keep 1-2 weeks.
Best,
Stacey