Vegan Pesto Sauce

Last summer, I blogged my family's beloved pesto recipe. And I don't say beloved lightly; we could live off pesto around here! The only bummer about our old pesto recipe is that it has Parmesan cheese in it - ugh! When I cut dairy, I was really bummed to miss out pesto! It turns out I don't have to miss out on pesto because there is such thing as vegan pesto! Last week, the Bean helped me put this pesto together and she was eating it straight out of the food processor with a spoon. I told you we could live off pesto! I am all for cleanliness in the kitchen but girlfriend was out of control! She just couldn't get enough - the basil, the garlic, the pine nuts... she was all about it!

We eat this pesto on gluten free pasta, but you could just have it on regular pasta. I'm thinking it would be really good on spaghetti squash too! The recipe is from Food52, you can find it HERE. I followed it to a tee and it was perfect!

We started by heading out to the backyard to pick some basil. We have 3 basil plants growing in our yard, so we went out and picked 2 packed cups. In the past, I've bought basil plants just to make pesto - store bought works just as well as home grown!

Wash and dry the basil leaves then add it to the bowl of the food processor along with 1/2 cup of pine nuts and 2 cloves of garlic. Pulse these first three ingredients together until they are coarsely ground.

Let the food processor run as you slowly stream in 1/2 cup of olive oil.

When the olive oil has been added, blend in 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, 3 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt and pepper. Once these last ingredients have been added in, blend until the pesto is smooth and well combined.

I topped our pesto pasts with some honey garlic marinated chicken. We had the chicken the night before (so good!), I just slice up the left overs and serve it with the pesto! This makes such a quick and easy meal especially on nights when everyone is running everywhere! Pesto is one of our go to's for busy nights.


VEGAN PESTO SAUCE
yield: about 1 cup of pesto

ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
pinch of salt & pepper

directions
1. Wash and dry the basil leaves.
2. Add the basil, the garlic and the pine nuts to the food processor and pulse until everything is coarsely ground.
3. Leave the food processor on as you slowly stream in the olive oil.
4. Blend in the lemon juice, the nutritional yeast and the salt and pepper. Blend until the pesto is smooth and consistent.
5. Mix the pesto into your pesto of choice (gluten free pasta works great! But you could also use regular pasta or spaghetti squash).

Let me know if you have questions!