7-Ingredient vegan kale pesto, made with cooked kale and walnuts instead of fresh basil and pine nuts. It's ready in 15 minutes and tastes amazing.
Who doesn't love pesto? It goes well with pretty much everything and I could eat it with a spoon straight from the jar. We've shared many pesto recipes on the blog and I couldn't choose only one, I'm in love with all of them.
We've always made pesto using raw leafy greens, especially basil or spinach, but kale is in season, so we decided to give it a try and OMG, this vegan kale pesto is out of this world.
Classic pesto is made with fresh basil and pine nuts, but cooked kale is easier to digest and softer. As pine nuts are pretty expensive in our area, we usually prepare our pesto using walnuts or other nuts, but it's still delicious.
Extra virgin oil is the perfect oil to make this recipe. We've never made pesto using other type of oil, but I guess it should work. The authentic recipe is made using only oil, but we like to add some water to reduce the amount of fat of our pesto. If you add only oil, the pesto will be tastier and also will last longer, so keep that in mind.
looking for more pesto recipes?
- Pesto pasta salad
- Vegan pesto risotto
- Vegan pesto hummus
- Roasted pesto potatoes
- Vegan pesto, hummus, avocado sandwich
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment below, share it, rate it or tag a picture @simpleveganblog on Instagram and hashtag it #simpleveganblog. We’d love to see what you cook!
Vegan Kale Pesto
Ingredients
- 4 oz kale, washed and stems removed
- ¼ cup walnuts
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, see notes for an oil-free alternative
- 1-2 tablespoon water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- â…› teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
Instructions
- Boil or steam the kale for 5 minutes. Then drain, add cold water and squeeze excess water out with your hands.
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend until well combined. Add more or less oil, depending on how thick you like your pesto. We also add some water to make the recipe lower in fat, but it's even better if you use only oil and it will last longer as well.
- Keep leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Notes
- For an oil-free version of this recipe, use tahini or any nut butter instead of extra virgin olive oil. I would add 2 tablespoon of tahini and 2 tablespoon of water, instead of 4 tablespoon of oil, but it's up to you.
- Any type of nuts will do.
Alice says
I made this but had some fresh frozen basil I added. I used tahini and 3 cloves garlic. In the past I used just about any greens, frequently when cleaning out my fridge, of greens that are becoming borderline, for pesto. I do have pine nuts but haven't located them since my move.. Walnuts are a great sustitute for lots of other nuts. Thanks for recipe. It is easy and fast.
Alice says
I freeze the extra in bigger, silicon ice cube trays and then store the cubes in freezer. It does freeze well.
Iosune Robles says
Thanks for your kind comment 🙂 Have a nice day Alice!
Jeanelle says
need to try this as i have loads of kale at the moment and it sounds delicious xx
Iosune Robles says
Hope you like it Jeanelle 🙂 Have a nice day!
Stacey Simpson says
Can I use frozen kale that has been thawed out? If so, would 4oz of frozen be the same as 4oz of fresh?
Iosune says
Hi Stacey! I've never made this recipe using frozen kale, but I think it could work. I'm not sure if it would be the same, sorry!