This healthy vegan pesto is packed with fresh herbs, healthy fats, and antioxidants. Quick to make, dairy-free, and perfect for pasta, sandwiches, and more.

This easy vegan pesto is a bright, flavorful, and incredibly versatile sauce or spread made with just a handful of wholesome ingredients. Fresh basil, lemon juice, nuts or seeds, garlic, and olive oil come together in minutes to create this vegan pesto. It’s vibrant, zesty, and tastes so much better than anything you’ll find in a jar — honestly, there’s no comparison!

Pesto is not only delicious but super healthy too. It is a great source of Vitamin K, E & C. It is highly rich in anti-oxidants that helps fight free radicals. In fact, they may help reduce your blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and cancer risk. Also, high in unsaturated fat, it is great for your kids and their heart health too.

More About Pesto

Traditional pesto is a blend of fresh sweet basil, garlic, pine nuts, extra-virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese. While pesto may seem fancy and gourmet but homemade pesto is very easy to make. Just a few blitz in the food processor and it’s done. The flavor of sweet basil is between sweet and savory, with hints of mint, anise, and pepper.

Once you’ve made the classic basil pesto recipe, try changing it up! In this recipe, I swapped the pine nuts with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

The use of pesto is literally endless. It can be used to make grilled sandwiches, as a pizza sauce, spaghetti, salad dressing, eggs, grilled vegetables, pull apart bread, swirl it in hummus or minestrone soup. There is so much you can do with it.

Note: I prefer roasting nuts or seeds except hemp seeds for pesto. Roasting not only increases flavour but also makes nuts and seeds easy to digest. However, you can use raw nuts or seeds if you like.

Vegan Pesto Variations

Switch the Greens: One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh basil in my kitchen garden. I love to use it in pesto. However, this recipe can be made with different herbs. Try replacing basil with mint, cilantro, radish greens, carrot greens, parsley or spinach. You can also skip basil completely and use a mix of mint and cilantro (coriander) or spinach and mint leaves.

Swap the Nuts: Almost all nuts and seeds work in pesto. Traditionally pine nuts are used, but you can use walnuts, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds.

Make it Cheesier: If you want your vegan pesto to have cheesy flavour, add in a tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

Extra Punch: You can also add roasted red bell pepper or sun-dried tomatoes to amp up the flavours.

Step by Step Instructions

For detailed recipe, jump to recipe card below

1. Wash basil leaves well and then pat dry to remove excess water.

2. In a food processor add basil leaves, roasted sunflower seeds, roasted pumpkin seeds, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper.

3. Now while the food processor is running, drizzle in olive oil till everything is well combined.

4. For extra cheesy flavor, add 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast. Taste and adjust, adding more nutritional yeast, salt or pepper.

5. Pesto is a coarse paste and not a smooth one. If you want fine pesto add more olive oil. DO NOT add water in pesto.

Storage

Store any leftover pesto in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3–4 days. For longer storage, freeze the pesto in ice cube trays. Once frozen, transfer the cubes to an airtight container or freezer bag and store for up to 2 months.

Wholesome Pesto Sandwich (2 Ways)

1. Take your choice of bread. I prefer using wholewheat bread. Spread pesto generously on one slice. Add some mozzarella cheese and top it with tomato slices. Season with some salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Grill it and enjoy a delicious sandwich for breakfast or lunch.

2. Take your choice of bread. Spread pesto generously on one slice. Add paneer slices for protein and top with either capsicum or bell peppers. Season with salt, pepper, chili flakes and oregano. Grill it and enjoy.

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