Incredibly delicious, quick and easy Pesto Recipe Without Pine Nuts made with 5 ingredients in 5 minutes!
I don't know about you, but I always keep walnuts stocked in my pantry. They can be used to make everything from chicken salad to Apple Crumble or pesto.
In my opinion, pesto without pinenuts is one of the easiest homemade sauces to make because it's made with a handful of simple ingredients and requires no cooking. 🙌
While homemade tomato sauce is also super delicious, sometimes it's nice to change things up! Give this homemade pesto a try and let me know what you think!
I'll show you how easy it is to make pesto without pine nuts, what you can do with it, and how to store it!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy Recipe Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend! Plus, this easy walnut pesto is made with simple ingredients that are easy to find. While Pecorino Romano cheese may add more flavor, the chances that most people reading this have it in their fridge are slim 😉
- 5-Minute Recipe Yes, you read it right! This pesto without pinenuts recipe takes 5 minutes from start to finish if you use pre-grated parmesan cheese.
- No Pine Nuts Made with walnuts instead of pine nuts. Pine nuts are expensive and harder to find than walnuts.
- Kid-Approved Need I say more? Haha! Seriously, this easy pesto recipe tastes so much better than store-bought pesto! And, if your child has nut allergies, try using sunflower seeds in place of walnuts.
- Less Oil This pesto recipe is made with less oil than store bought pesto, and it tastes better, too!
Dietitian Tip
While fish is most notorious for providing omega-3 fatty acids, let's face it, most kids are not eating fish high in omega-3s (like salmon) two days a week. And that's how other foods, like walnuts, can help.
Using walnuts in recipes is an easy way to get more omega-3 into your diet. In fact, walnuts are the only nut that offers a significant amount of the plant-based omega-3 ALA.
Ingredient Notes
Here are a few notes on the main ingredients needed to make this pesto without pine nuts recipe. These 5 ingredients listed do not include water, salt, or black pepper that this recipe also calls for.
- Fresh basil This recipe calls for two-cups of slightly packed, fresh basil leaves, which is about 2.5 ounces.
- Walnuts Toasted walnuts for optimal flavor. Raw, untoasted walnuts can be used but the flavor is so much better if you use toasted walnuts.
- Parmesan cheese Use freshly grated for optimal flavor. I tend to be in a crunch for time, so I often use grated Parmesan Reggiano that I buy in bulk from Costco, and it works well!
- Garlic Use fresh garlic cloves for best flavor. You can use jarred garlic or garlic powder instead, if it's what you have but the flavor won't quite be the same.
- Olive oil Use extra virgin olive oil. This recipe calls for less oil than most homemade pesto recipes.
How to Make Pesto Without Pine Nuts
Here is a brief overview of the steps to make this recipe. For the full recipe, including a complete list of ingredients and instructions, scroll down to the recipe card.
- Place all of the ingredients in a small blender or food processor. The basil leaves should be the farthest from the blades (so, either place them in the blender first or last, depending on how your blender base is positioned).
- Blend until smooth. If some of the basil leaves get stuck and don't move toward the blades while blending, you may need to pause blending once to get them down.
How to Serve Pesto Without Pine Nuts
Just like traditional basil pesto, pesto without pine nuts is a versatile sauce with a creamy texture that can be used to flavor a variety of dishes.
- Top Salmon with Pesto
- Make it to make Pesto Tortellini
- As a base for Margherita Flatbread Pizza
- Drizzled on top of Avocado Toast with Tomato
- Used as a base layer when making Bruschetta Caprese
- Spread a layer of pesto on grilled cheese.
- Serve pesto as a dip with bread, the way many Italian restaurants serve it.
How to Store Homemade Pesto
Refrigerate: Store leftover pesto in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Try to refrigerate it in a container that fits just the amount of pesto that you have. The less air in the container, the less brown the top of the pesto will get.
Freeze: Believe it or not, I usually freeze pesto in a freezer-safe resealable zip-loc bag. Be sure to squeeze as much of the air out as you can first, before sealing it.
You can also use ice cube trays to freeze pesto.
Helpful Tips
- Fresh basil, garlic, parmesan, salt, and pepper all contribute equally to the incredible fresh flavor of this basil pesto. Any substitution that you make to these ingredients will affect the flavor.
- If you prefer lemon in your pesto, add one or two tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice before blending.
- A small personal sized blender or food processor will work great for this.
- Use a small spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- This recipe does not make enough to cover the blades of a low-profile Vitamix blender (with a wide base).
- If you have a low-profile Vitamix blender, I recommend using the personal cup adapter (if you have one) that fits on your Vitamix.
- If you are going to use this pesto with another salty ingredient (like tortellini), I suggest cutting back on the salt in this recipe. You can always add more later.
- One serving is ¼ cup which is the same as 2 ounces of pesto.
- If you don't have an abundance of fresh basil leaves for this recipe, you can add fresh spinach leaves to make up the difference.
- This is not a vegan pesto recipe. To make a vegan pesto sauce, try using nutritional yeast in place of the cheese.
- To make this pesto nut free, use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts.
Questions You May Have
Yes! Homemade pesto tastes so fresh and much better than store-bought pesto. It is also much brighter in color which makes it more visually appealing.
Also, when you make your own pesto, you can adjust the ingredients. For instance, this pesto recipe is made with less oil and walnuts instead of pine nuts.
Fresh flat-leaf parsley can be used in place of basil. I've made it this way and it was so refreshing. Of course, it had a different flavor, but it was still very good.
Also, you can substitute some of the basil with baby spinach. The more you substitute, the more noticeable it will be.
Yes, you can! I actually had to look this question up for myself because the stems are rather long in the packages that I bought from Trader Joe's a few weeks ago.
Yes. Rinse fresh basil leaves to get any remaining dirt or bugs off. Then, simply pat to dry. There is no need to soak or immerse the basil leaves in water.
If I will be making pesto right away, I don't always pat the basil leaves first and it still worked. So, drying is not necessary if you've already measured the basil and will be using it right away.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
Pesto Without Pine Nuts
Equipment
- 1 small blender or food processor
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to the blender. See notes.
- Blend until all ingredients are combined. This should take 30-60 seconds.
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