It’s pesto time at my house. I decided to try a plant-based pesto this summer. Instead of adding parmesan, I used nutritional yeast. To my surprise, it turned out just as good as the original.
I still have a lot of extra basil. If you have a favorite pesto recipe, I’d love to try it! Feel free to add a link to your blog with the comments below.
Plant-Powered Pesto
Yield: 1 cup Prep Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1 cup packed basil leaves
4 garlic cloves
1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast in powder form*
3/4 cup walnuts
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Add all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight container for up to one week in the refrigerator. You can also freeze the pesto in ice cube trays for later meals.
Tips:
* Nutritional yeast is different than baker’s or brewer’s yeast. You can find it in the natural foods bulk section of grocery stores. Nutritional yeast is known for its tangy, cheesy flavor and is packed with B vitamins, minerals, and protein.
elliebleu.com 
This looks so so good. I absolutely love pesto and the Parmesan free version at the supermarket is just way too salty!
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I agree 🙂 Plus, I often use the pesto to replace cheese on pizza so I like a more hearty pesto on hand.
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This sounds wonderful. I love pesto and will look around for some nutritional yeast. 😃
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Thanks Millie for stopping by. Its always fun to try out something new. I recommend getting a little scoop from the bulk section to see if you like it.
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I’ll try that! Thank you, Ellie.
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A beautiful pesto! I’ve never heard of nutritional yeast.
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Thanks Mimi. I only discovered it about a year ago. So far my only success with it has been pesto 🙂 and a parmesan “cheese” that I’ll post later on.
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Wow, never heard of this nutritional yeast but I am very curious to try it (: the pesto looks awesome!
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My friend, a dietitian, got me to try the nutritional yeast flakes on popcorn. With a little sea salt, it became one of my favorite snacks.
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Beautiful Pesto Ellie!
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Thank you Archana. Your photos on Ministry of Curry are always lovely. 🙂
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This looks delicious Ellie 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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I’m glad you added the info on nutritional yeast because I wondered!
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When I first discovered nutritional yeast, I was a little unsure of it myself. 🙂
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I am going to add nutritional yeast to my pesto next time! I’ve never done that before!! Looks pretty😘
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Thank you Susan. I hope you give it a try.
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Thanks…again! What a marvelous idea.
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Really interesting substitute for parmesan; looks delic!
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Thanks Annabelle. So happy you stopped by!
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That sounds lovely – I’ve never heard of nutritional yeast and yet it sounds like a great addition for ‘health’ with all the vitamin B so I’ll be looking out for this.. Thanks for ‘raising’ my knowledge – hehe! x
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ps – here’s a link as requested to a lemony chicken that has a pesto variation sauce (with added crème fraiche) which I love.. https://brilliancewithin.com/2016/05/25/brilliance-within-recipe-basil-lemon-zesty-spring-chicken/
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Thank you Wendy. I’ll give it a try.
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Brilliant and hope you like it!
Let me know what you think.. xx
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Ellie, this pesto sounds great! I’ve never tried walnuts in it, only pine nuts, and now I will If you want to experiment more with nutritional yeast,here is a link to one of my recipes https://koolkosherkitchen.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/penne-tofu-with-impostor-alfredo/. Perhaps you’d want to try.
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Wonderful! The recipe looks delicious. I know it will be a family favorite. 🙂
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Thank you so much, I am glad you like it!
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I love this, hope to try it out soon:)
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Lovely 😃
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Never heard of nutritional yeast before. Thanks for introducing this.
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It’s a game changer if you decide to go dairy free. 🙂
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This sounds amazing!
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Thank you! I hope you like it.
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Such a lovely recipe!! Interesting substitute for parmesan ..
Here is one of my fav recipes – https://bnpassion.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/avocado-pesto/
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Hi Neetha. Thanks for the link to avocado pesto. Your blog is so colorful and fun! I look forward to following it.
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This sounds wonderful
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So happy you liked it 🙂
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