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vegan pea pesto in a bowl with lemon herbs and crackers

Vegan Pea Pesto

Course Spread
Cuisine Italian
Keyword dairy-free, plant-based, vegan
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh basil
  • 1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley
  • 1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen, defrosted)
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast*
  • 3-4 cloves garlic (roughly chopped)
  • 1/3 cup pecans (sub for walnuts, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds, if desired)
  • 1 lemon, juiced (~2 tbsp)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions

  1. Optional: toast your pecans in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Stir regularly to ensure that they don't burn.

  2. Add all ingredients, except olive oil, to a food processor and blend until roughly chopped.

  3. Scrape down the sides of the food processor and add in the olive oil. Continue to blend until you reach your desired level of smoothness.

Recipe Notes

*If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast, it is a plant-based ingredient that adds a cheesy/umami flavour. It is NOT the same yeast that you use in bread. Check it out here.

  • If you prefer a more acidic pesto, add more lemon juice. I usually do. 
  • Adjust the quantity of olive oil to change the consistency of the pesto. For a saucier pesto add more, for a drier pesto add less.