Basil pesto recipe vegan: 59 photos
FAQ
The base is fresh basil, pine nuts, and garlic with a splash of lemon juice for acidity and brightness. For that cheesy color and flavor, I rely on nutritional yeast, which is a man-made yeast that can be high in B12 (depending on the brand).
My favorite vegan pesto replaces parmesan cheese and pine nuts with nutritional yeast and cashews. This combination lends a buttery and cheesy flavor that pairs well with the zesty lemon juice and fresh herbs. It's also much more friendly on your wallet when it's made without pine nuts.
As a vegan ingredient darling and the prototypical cheese flavor alternative, nutritional yeast is a classic Parmesan substitute when making a dairy-free pesto. In many recipes, you'll find it used as a one-for-one swap for the grated cheese, with everything else in the formula staying the same.
For vegan pesto, you will need basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and either pine nuts or walnuts. You can make a great pesto with these ingredients alone, but if you want to get that cheesy taste that pesto has, put in some nutritional yeast.
The reason is because classic basil pesto contains pecorino and Parmigiano-Reggiano, which are both made from milk curdled in animal rennet. That means that most of the pesto sauces you see on supermarket shelves are not vegetarian.