Vegan Pesto: From harvesting the basil to freezing the pesto.
Make a big batch of pesto that will last for months!
Hello, Happy Friday!
This week our basil plant needed some serious trimming so we made a very big batch of pesto and decided to shoot the process of making the pesto from scratch + freezing, hoping you find it helpful 💚
Happening this week…
We made a new video recipe for our delicious Patatas Bravas; you can have a look at it. I loved filming this, as it is one of my favorite recipes, and it’s always great to make recipes from home!
I would love to hear your feedback on our videos, as we’re just getting started and want to keep improving 😊
We shared a refreshing zucchini noodles recipe, just in case you missed it, and some summer essentials that are a must in our kitchen during these months.
Tomorrow I’ll be sending the second week of our Summer meal Plan ☀️
Remember that we have an active Discount for our e-book “Mediterranean Kitchen”. You can get this e-book that comes with 72 pages filled with delicious recipes for this summer for less than 10 USD. Discount Code: SHFONLY30. You’ll get instant access to all our paid content for the next 3 months!
Finally, this week, we also made fresh basil pesto and froze it into small portions to have it during the next months, as our basil plant is starting to flower. We made a video for this also, which I’ll be sharing soon.
Harvesting my basil plant feels especially great as I know we’re going to be making delicious pesto with it. If you’re not growing your own basil, don’t worry, you can totally make this recipe with store-bought basil.
For the past years, we've been growing our own basil plants for mainly two reasons: it makes for great natural pest control for our vegetable plants, and our family loves pesto! In early summer, we can start harvesting our pesto, and we much prefer doing this in bit batches, so we prepare a big jug of pesto that we freeze to keep for the coming months.
Once the basil plant starts to flower, the taste of the leaves changes, so we leave it to dry to keep the seeds for next year. This is how we have an unlimited supply of basil and, of course, pesto!
If you have basil plants, a little trick I use to harvest the basil is trimming one of the main stems to a point where you find a set of side shoots, allowing the main stem to grow into two stems.
I learned this trick from a friend a few summers ago, and my basil plants are now so much bigger!
What do you need to make Vegan Pesto
This makes 14 small portions, but you can half the amount if you prefer to make a smaller batch.
5 cups of fresh basil leaves. You'll need fresh basil to make your pesto. There are different types of basil, so make sure you're using a basil plant that has big leaves. You can also make basil with purple basil, which we've tried before, and the taste is very similar.
3/4 cups of olive oil.
1/2 cup pine nuts. I use pine nuts for my vegan pesto to keep this recipe as original as possible. Now, I know pine nuts can be very expensive, so you're more than welcome to use other types of nuts. If we don't have pine nuts, we normally add cashews or Macadamia nuts.
1/2 yeast flakes. This is our substitute for the parmesan that goes in the classic pesto. Nutritional yeast adds a cheesy flavor to the sauce. Check out some substitutes for nutritional yeast if you don't have this ingredient.
2 garlic cloves.
Cooking Method
First, you'll need to separate the leaves from the stems of your basil. To make pesto, you can use the whole plant, but we prefer to only use the leaves. Then, wash and dry all the leaves with a paper towel.
Add all the ingredients to make the pesto in a food processor or blender. We normally make a big batch when making pesto so we can freeze it, and our food processor works best for that. If you are making a smaller batch, a smaller blender will work fine.
Incorporate the fresh basil, pine nuts, yeast flakes, garlic cloves, and olive oil.
Blend all the ingredients, and if needed, keep adding some more olive oil while blending the pesto. You may need to stop a few times to scrape down the bits left on the sides of the blender and make sure all the leaves are finely chopped and incorporated into the pesto sauce.
Now, you can use this pesto to make some of your favorite recipes, such as Trenette al pesto, or you can freeze it to stock up on pesto for the upcoming months.
If you want to freeze the pesto, transfer the sauce into an ice cube tray. Depending on the size of your tray, you'll be able to fit more or less sauce in each space.
Fill up all the ice cube tray cubes and seal with some more olive oil. Then leave the ice cube tray in the freezer overnight so the pesto completely freezes.
Once frozen, you can transfer the homemade pesto to a Ziplock bag and freeze it for up to six months.
To thaw the pesto, simply take one or two cubes, depending on the amount of pesto you need, leave it to completely thaw at room temperature, or place it in a frying pan at low heat to thaw the vegan pesto slowly.
How to use Pesto
Our kids love pesto, and because is made with fresh ingredients and packed with protein and good fats from the nuts, we try to make it quite often and combine it with different ingredients. Some of our favorite ways to use pesto include:
Pasta, of course! Trenette al pesto is one of our favorites as we can use green beans and potatoes from our garden. Also, this pasta dish with broccoli and avocado is a favorite at home.
Smashed potatoes with pesto. We love making some crispy smashed potatoes and serving them with some pesto on top.
With roasted veggies. During the colder months, we prepare a tray of roasted veggies, and our kids love it when we make some pesto on the side. Normally, we use frozen pesto that we made during basil season.
As a pizza topping. Yes! You can add pesto as a pizza topping; it goes amazing, adding some saltiness and fantastic flavor to your slice of pizza.
Sandwiches. Ever tried making a pesto sandwich? We love making them for a beach day, adding some pesto, some vegan slices, and fresh tomatoes, so yummy!
I hope you enjoy this recipe 💚😀