Very Veggie Vegan Pesto

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The nutritional yeast and pine nuts lend a ‘cheesiness’ similar to Parmesan, and mixing basil and other greens gives you an extra dose of veggies.

If serving with pasta, you want to drain the boiling water from the pasta but NOT rinse it or lightly coat it with olive oil – that way it will better ‘hold’ the pesto.

(If you salt your pasta water, make sure not to over-salt the pesto!) Freeze these leftovers in ice cube trays to have them on hand for future recipes – they keep really well!

This is versatile, so switch it up however you like and let us know how it goes in the comments.

For example, we tested this with inexpensive sunflower seeds, it tasted GREAT and cost A LOT less than pine nuts!

As usual, it’s easy to blend it into a smooth consistency with your Blendtec or Vitamix blender, or you can use a food processor.

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Very Veggie Vegan Pesto

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Course: Sauce

1 .5 cups

Author: Blender Babes

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or sunflower seeds*
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup kale or spinach leaves optional
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Add ingredients to your jar in the order listed.
• For BLENDTEC: Using TWISTER Jar - Press the DIPS/BATTERS button 2x turning lid counterclockwise. With FOURSIDE Jar** - Use your manuel keys and take it to speed 6, let it run for 20 to 30 seconds. Stop machine and scrape ingredients towards to blade and repeat until smooth.
• For VITAMIX: Start on speed 1, turn the machine on, slowly increase to speed 7 and let it run for 45 seconds to 1 minute. Press the ingredients into the blade with the tamper.
• All done! Enjoy!! Now take a photo, rate it, and share your accomplishments! 🙂 Tag @BlenderBabes & #BlenderBabes

Notes

*You can substitute walnuts or pumpkin seeds for the pine nuts or sunflower seeds if desired, or do a mixture. You can also toast these - just put them in a dry saucepan over medium heat for a few minutes - or leave them raw!

**If using Wildside Jar will have to double recipe.

HEALTH BENEFITS & FUN FACTS
Nutritional yeast is grown on sugar beet greens and is an inactive yeast, so even if you are sensitive to yeast, you can still take advantage of its nutty, cheesy flavor!

Nutritional yeast is one of very few vegetarian sources of Vitamin B-12, and just one tablespoon of nutritional yeast provides an entire day’s worth of vitamin B-12.

It’s also a great source of fiber, it is gluten-free, and has lots of folic acid!

This broth seasoning has a lot of it, but you can also just sprinkle it over roasted cauliflower for a healthy and delicious snack.