Easy Vegan Pesto (Quick + Gluten-Free)

This easy vegan pesto sauce is creamy, cheesy, and garlicky, and can be thrown together in a matter of minutes. Delicious and naturally gluten-free, it’s perfect for pasta, pizza, toast, salad dressings, marinades, and so much more.

Pesto is not only versatile in its uses, but also in terms of the ingredients. I've included various tips and options for this recipe, from making it without nuts to making it without nutritional yeast or even without basil.

For more delicious recipes that do include basil, check out this 12-minute tomato and basil pasta and smoked tofu risotto with lemon and basil.

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Is pesto vegan?

Traditional pesto sauces contain a hard cheese such as parmesan or pecorino, which is an animal product and therefore not vegan.  

The good news is that it’s very easy to replicate the cheesiness and nuttiness of traditional pesto in a way that’s completely dairy-free. 

A few years ago, I was surprised to find out that many brands of dairy parmesan aren’t even vegetarian. This is because traditional Parmigiano-Reggiano uses animal rennet in the production process, taken from the stomach lining of calves.

Is vegan pesto healthy? 

The pine nuts and olive oil in this recipe are relatively high in fat, but you don’t need a lot of sauce to dot over a pizza or flavour a bowl of pasta.  

Basil is high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, with the nutritional yeast and pine nuts providing great sources of plant-based protein.

How to make it without nuts 

You have a few options for making vegan pesto without nuts: 

• Simply omit the pine nuts and enjoy the pesto as a thinner sauce with a greater emphasis on the garlic and basil flavours. The French actually call this a pistou sauce. 
• Replace the pine nuts with your favourite plant seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin, or hemp. The taste and texture will vary slightly depending on what you use. 

How to make it without nutritional yeast 

Nutritional yeast or ‘nooch’ comes in the form of a flaky yellowish powder and lends a cheesy umami flavour to dishes. It’s often fortified with vitamin B12 and is one of the many weird vegan ingredients to play around with in the kitchen. 

If you don’t have nutritional yeast or don’t want to include it, you have a few options: 

• Simply omit it from the recipe (the other flavours will still taste great) 
• Use vegan parmesan cheese (although this often has a coconut oil flavour that you might not want in your pesto) 
• Add a tablespoon of vegan Dijon mustard (this has a sharp flavour that I find emulates the zing of dairy parmesan) 
• Add a tablespoon of cider vinegar (same reason as above) 

How to make it without basil 

Traditional pesto recipes use basil, but you could swap out some or all of this for another ingredient. Options include: 

• Parsley 
• Coriander (cilantro) 
• Spinach 
• Kale
• Watercress 
• Rocket (arugula) leaves 
• Other mixed salad leaves 

The sky’s the limit when it comes to the greens in pesto. If you’ve played around with different ingredients or combinations of these, I’d love to hear about it down below in the comments! 

How to make easy vegan pesto

It doesn't get much easier than this. Simply add all the ingredients (except the water) to a food processor and blend into a paste. I like to add some chilli for a bit of extra zing, but this is completely optional.

While blending, you may need to stop once or twice to scrape down the sides with a spatula or spoon.

Next, add the water a little at a time and blend to loosen up the paste. The pesto should be thick, but should also fall off a spoon quite easily.

Serving suggestions

This pesto is perfect when mixed through freshly cooked pasta such as linguine or spaghetti (this recipe for sun-dried tomato pasta is a personal favourite). I also like it along with pan-fried mushrooms, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes.

To make an even creamier sauce, combine the pesto with a little homemade cashew cream.

It's also great for spreading on toast, adding to salad dressings, stirring into tomato soup, marinating other ingredients, or mixing through hummus. 

Recipe FAQ

More vegan recipe ideas

If you liked this recipe, you may also enjoy:

• Vegan Parmesan
• Easy Cheesy Pasta Sauce
• Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese
• Vegan Pea and Mint Risotto
• Homemade Italian Herb Mix
• Vegan Stewed Pepper Pasta
• Vegan Pasta Puttanesca
• Creamy Vegan Mushroom and Leek Tagliatelle

You can also check out my full list of vegan pasta dishes.

Full recipe