I love to jazz up pasta and sandwiches with fresh homemade pesto. This basil walnut pesto takes only a few minutes to make and tastes heavenly. Naturally, it doesn’t have any parmesan and thus it is dairy-free. This ultra tasty sauce provides such an explosion of flavor that it is destined to become a staple in your pantry.

Instructions

Ingredients

• 1 1/2-2 cups fresh, loosely packed, washed stemmed basil
• 1/2 cup raw walnuts
• 1 or 2 medium cloves of garlic
• 1/4-1/2 cup vegetable oil
• Pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Mix basil, walnuts and garlic into a course meal using the pulse option on your food processor.
2. Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil to the mixture and pulse the ingredients until your preferred consistency has been reached. Feel free to add more vegetable oil, if desired. I like my pesto to have a somewhat coarse texture. Whatever works!
3. Season with sea salt for taste.
4. Use immediately or store in fridge for later use.
5. Smile for you have just made delectable vegan pesto! 🙂

BTW: this basil walnut pesto goes superbly with whole-wheat pasta topped with vegan cashew “parmesan”.