Vegan Parsley-Pesto Sauce

 

Pesto is a sauce originated in Italy that traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil, pine nuts blended with olive oil and parmesan cheese. But basil and pine nuts are not readily available in Asia, thus here's a twisted version of pesto for us! 

 

 

I am pretty sure there is at least once (or very often!) that you have tons of leftover English parsley in your pantry that you cannot use up in time before it goes bad, and neither do you want to miss out using this green herbs as a beautiful garnishing which perfect your dishes, and for photography. Then, this recipe is perfect for you!

 

 

And if pine nuts are not readily accessible in your local stores, you may replace with walnuts, almond or cashew nuts. To replace diary cheese that is traditionally used in pesto recipes, I used nutritional yeast for that nutty and cheesy taste, you may use also vegan cheese. This is perfect for vegans! I use this pesto sauce for pasta, pizza base, as sandwich spread, as dip for crunchy veggies like carrot, cucumber and celery, and as salad sauce! One sauce, multi-purpose.. love it!

 

Dietary: Vegetarian, Vegan.
Yield 1 cup

 

Ingredients
 1/4 cup cashew nuts (or pine nuts, walnuts, almond)

 2 1/2 cups fresh parsley, packed
 3 cloves garlic, peeled
 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
 2 tsp lemon zest 

 1 Tbsp lemon juice
 1/2 tsp salt
 Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

 

Method

1. Toast nuts in a dry pan for 5-6 minutes over medium heat or in Airfryer until lightly golden and fragrant. Remove and set aside to cool.

2. Into a food processor, add nuts and pulse a few times until smaller pieces. Then add the rest of the ingredients (except oil) and blend slowly until smooth. Through the feed tube, pour in the oils until evenly blended

 

3. Transfer to a jar and serve and use as you like!

 

Tips

☼ How to store?

Freeze in ice cube tray or baking mould, remove pesto cubes and place into a bag. It can be stored frozen up to one months.