Quick & Easy Homemade Basil Pesto
This basil pesto recipe is easy and delicious. It can be easily made into a vegan pesto and is perfect to add to pastas, as a dip, and is delicious as a spread on crusty bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh basil
- 2 cups fresh spinach or spinach and arugula mix
- 3 cloves garlic peeled
- ¼ cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts (see note)
- ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese optional (see note)
- ¾ teas salt
- ½ teas freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ lemon juiced
- ⅓ cup olive oil extra virgin
Instructions
- wash an spin the fresh basil and spinach in a salad spinner to drain excess water
- add the basil and spinach to the food processor
- add the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil
- turn on the food processor and slowly drizzle the olive oil in while it's processing until it reaches your desired consistency. I like it spreadable but not runny (see video)
- serve with toasted bread, in pasta, with veggies or on sandwiches
- store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 7 days
- pesto freezes well, put it in an ice cube tray in the freezer until frozen, remove from the ice cube tray and transfer into a freezer bag.
Notes
*if you want to make pesto without pine nuts, you can easily substitute walnuts without any problems. I do it all the time
*if you want to make your pesto paleo, whole30 friendly or vegan, simply omit the parmesan cheese and add a few extra nuts for texture
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!