Vegan Basil Pesto Recipe

I have a basil plant in a pot and 2 plants in the garden. One in the garden is huge and the other has been taking it's time to grow. I like when my garden plants grow at different times. Then I get continual produce with out a crop overwhelming my time at once.

I have been making and perfecting my pesto recipe this year and finally think I have it just the way I like it. I have been doing 2 variations. One with all basil and one with basil and Peppermint from a plant I have in a pot.

What you will need:

 food processor
Some glass jars with screw on tops, and or 8 oz. to 16 oz. mason jars with lids

1/2 cup raw walnuts ( you can use pine nuts or almonds)

4-5 cloves of garlic (If they are big then count them as 2-3 each)

1/3 cup nutritional Yeast (I use Lewis Labs. I think it is very tasty)

About 3-4 cups of stuffed basil leaves. A bit more or less is fine.( for basil mint, use an estimated 2 cups mint leaves and 2 cups basil leaves. You can ratio it anyway you like.)

2/3 cup Olive oil ( or any veggie oil of choice works to)

1 tsp. salt ( I use Kosher)

Juice of one Lemon

Put all ingredients, but oil into food processor and blend for about 20-30 seconds. Then while the processor is on slowly pour the oil in. Stop the process and scrape the sides if needed. when smooth and looking creamy, it is done. The blending takes only about another 30 seconds.

The pic. above is a basil mint blend and below is a basil only blend.

Some times my batch is big and sometimes small. But the measurements I gave will give you an estimated 14-16 oz.

That was the bigger batch and below was the smaller batch.

 You can do less salt if you prefer to. Depending on your diet. You can place these into the freezer for an estimated time of 6 months. Some people say a year, but until I know for myself I will go with the 6 months. In the fridge it only tastes fresh about a week to a week and a half. That was in the door. Perhaps if it was kept in the back and lower part of fridge it would last longer, but not sure yet.

Use it in pasta of choice.

On warm bread of choice.

I think it would be tasty mixed with some fresh cut Tomatoes as a salad/ or meal. Or baked on chicken then topped with fresh Tomatoes and or some Italian cheese of choice. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have been. Have a great day.

Updated note: You can use less garlic if you like, and more veggie oil if your batch is big. You can also add more or less nuts to. You can toast the nuts before blending. Lemon can be omitted. This recipe is very open to changes to appeal to your taste. I found that my extra big batch did not have enough oil and could of used more salt. I could be using exact measurements, but that would mean more tools and dishes to clean. Suddenly making the preparation of food boring and a chore. I want to learn the feel of the right measurements by weight, sight and taste, over time.