Incredibly delicious Pistachio Pesto made with a handful of simple, fresh ingredients in 5 minutes! A versatile sauce that tastes so much better than store-bought pesto!
I've always loved traditional pesto, but over the years I've gained inspiration from local restaurants to use ingredients that are more practical and bring out even more flavor.
This recipe is no different! First, I found a way to make homemade pesto without pinenuts that tastes like classic basil pesto.
Then, I played around with ingredients the next few times I made pesto to see what tasted the best. Did you know you can use flat leaf parsley or cilantro instead of fresh basil? There are seriously so many variations of pesto! 😍
For this recipe, I decided to incorporate pistachio nuts because they are more practical than traditional pine nuts (in my opinion;), and they add a fun twist to the flavor and texture of this delicious pesto sauce. I can't wait for you to try it!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy Recipe You only need a handful of ingredients and a blender or food processor to make this flavorful sauce.
- Simple Ingredients Fresh basil, pistachios, fresh garlic, and lemon can be found in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Olive oil is found with other cooking oils and parmesan cheese is found in the cheese section of grocery stores and Costco.
- Meal Prep If you have an abundance of fresh basil, turn it into pesto and use an ice cube tray to freeze. This way you can pop out a few cubes of frozen pesto to defrost for use on busy weeknights later in the year.
- Versatile Sauce This recipe calls for water and just enough olive oil to make a light and creamy pesto that you can use in your 'go to' pesto pasta dish, add to your favorite pasta, or drizzle onto bruschetta, Caprese salad, avocado toast, margherita flatbread, or ancient grain bowls.
Dietitian Tip
Don't be afraid to change up the ingredients in recipes, whether it's to use up what you have, increase calories, or accommodate food allergies.
For instance, if you have a child who has a hard time gaining weight, you can either substitute olive oil for water or stir in extra olive oil in your child's serving when making this recipe.
And, if you don't have basil or enough basil, try substituting basil for flat leaf parsley or use some baby spinach leaves to make up for the amount of basil leaves you don't have.
Yes, the flavor will be different, but I'm sure it will still taste fantastic!
Ingredient Notes
- Fresh Basil Leaves Just like traditional pesto, this pistachio pesto recipe is made using fresh basil. If you don't have enough basil leaves, you can use baby spinach or fresh flatleaf parsley in place of some of the basil.
- Pistachios Most pistachio pesto recipes call for raw pistachios. I don't usually keep raw pistachios on hand, so I've made this with raw and roasted and salted pistachios. See the notes section for more on this.
- Garlic Fresh garlic cloves add the best garlic flavor! If you don't love garlic, you can make this without it, but I'd suggest using at least one garlic clove.
- Lemon Inspired by the vegan kale pesto at Trader Joe's. Fresh squeezed lemon juice takes the flavor of this delicious pesto up a notch. If you don't mind the aftertaste of fresh lemon zest, zest the lemon before squeezing the juice out.
- Olive Oil Use extra-virgin olive oil.
- Salt Only add a pinch of salt if you are using raw or unsalted pistachios.
How to Make Pistachio Pesto
Here's a summary of how to make pesto with pistachios. For the full list of ingredients and complete instructions, scroll down to the recipe card.
- Place all ingredients in a food processor.
- Blend or pulse until a pretty smooth and creamy texture is reached.
How to Serve Pesto
- As a Dip You may have seen pesto served with bread or mixed in with olive oil and served with bread at an Italian restaurant. This delicious pre-meal start can be replicated at home!
- With Pasta Use pesto in place of marinara sauce to make pistachio pesto pasta, or make our all-time favorite pesto pasta dish, tortellini with pesto and chicken.
- With Salmon This recipe has you add pesto to the top of the salmon just before it's finished in the air fryer.
- Avocado Toast I got this idea from a local restaurant. They drizzle homemade pesto on top of what they call 'Superfood Toast' made with mashed avocado, roasted beets, and microgreens. It's delicious!
- Ancient Grain Bowls I got this idea from True Food Kitchen, where they use pistachio pesto to make an ancient grain bowl. They top a mixture of quinoa, rice, and farro with sweet potatoes, portobello mushrooms, snap peas, charred onions, and avocado.
Helpful Tips
- This pesto might be a little gritty if you use a food processor to make it. You can always use an emersion blender to smooth it out.
- If you prefer a thinner pesto, add up to one more tablespoon of water or olive oil per quarter of a cup of pesto and continue to blend until the texture is the way you like it.
- The garlic cloves should be closest to the blades. If you have an upright blender or food processor, add the garlic cloves first and the basil leaves last.
- If you have a blender that uses a container that you turn upside down to blend, add the basil leaves first and the garlic cloves last.
- Adding fresh lemon zest is optional. In my opinion, I didn't love the aftertaste of fresh lemon zest in this recipe, but if you don't mind it, add some!
- I had a really hard time finding raw pistachios in my local grocery stores, so I tested this recipe with raw pistachios and with roasted and pistachios. I did notice a slight difference in color of the pesto but they both tasted great!
Questions You May Have
Yes, you sure can. If you want to make it a day ahead and keep it fresh tasting, cover the top of the pesto with a very thin layer of olive oil to keep it from browning.
If you want to make this more than a day ahead, I suggest storing it refrigerated in an airtight container with a tight-fitting lid that is just big enough to hold the amount of pesto you made (minimal air between the top of the pesto and the lid is best) to use within a few days OR pour it into an ice cube tray or freezer bag to freeze.
You can use baby spinach or curly kale in place of one cup of basil without noticing much of a difference in flavor. I should add, you'll probably notice more of a difference when using kale than when using baby spinach.
You can also use other fresh herbs. I've substituted all of the basil for flat leaf parsley because it's what I had, and I've had cilantro pesto at True Food Kitchen. Both tasted amazing!
Of course, it tasted different than traditional pesto because parsley has a different flavor. But it still had excellent flavor!
In my opinion, walnuts and pistachios are the best nuts for making pesto.
Pine nuts are used in traditional pesto recipes, but they are so expensive and not as easy to find in the grocery store.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
5-Minute Pistachio Pesto
Equipment
- 1 Food processor or blender
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves lightly packed
- ¼ cup pistachios raw or roasted or salted will work
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves garlic fresh garlic
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice use fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 3 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- ⅓ cup water use warm water
- ½ teaspoon salt sea salt or table salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. The garlic cloves should be closest to the blades and the basil leaves should be furthest from the blades before blending.¼ cup pistachios, ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoon lemon juice, 3 tablespoon olive oil, ⅓ cup water, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, 2 cups fresh basil leaves
- Blend until your desired consistency is reached.
Notes
- This pesto might be a little gritty if you use a food processor to make it. You can always use an emersion blender to smooth it out.
- If you prefer a thinner pesto, add up to one more tablespoon of water or olive oil per quarter of a cup of pesto and continue to blend until the texture is the way you like it.
- The garlic cloves should be closest to the blades before blending. If you have an upright blender or food processor, add the garlic cloves first and the basil leaves last.
- If you have a blender that uses a container that you turn upside down to blend, add the basil leaves first and the garlic cloves last.
- Adding fresh lemon zest is optional. In my opinion, I didn't love the aftertaste of fresh lemon zest in this recipe, but if you don't mind it, add some!
- I had a really hard time finding raw pistachios in my local grocery stores, so I tested this recipe with raw pistachios and with roasted and pistachios. I did notice a slight difference in color of the pesto but they both tasted great!
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