This simple and Easy Vegan Pesto recipe is fresh, oil-free, just 6 ingredients and takes just a few minutes to prepare. Healthy and wholesome with lots of fresh basil and pine nuts!
EASY VEGAN PESTO
I have always loved pesto. I love it even more with it is a healthy pesto, as well as being extremely simple and easy to make with only a few ingredients. This easy vegan pesto is oil-free, unlike traditional pesto, which has crazy amounts of oil.
This recipe comes from Emily Von Euw and her cookbook, The Rawsome Vegan Cookbook. As Emily describes it, “A balance of Raw and Lightly-cooked, Gluten-free, Plant-based Meal for Healthy Living”.
Emily’s blog, This Rawsome Vegan Life, is extremely successful and even though she is known for raw food, I love that this book has a ton of cooked recipes. I do not follow a raw diet, so this fits more into my daily lifestyle and eating. Emily is also known for her simplicity, which you all know I love and focus on as well with my own recipes.
Her book contains over 80 recipes, all accompanied with a beautiful photo, and very easy meals. They are all heavily focused on the simplicity and beauty of veggies. The meals are light, not heavy, so they won’t weigh you down. There are a ton of completely raw recipes and also a lot of lightly-cooked recipes. If you check out Emily on Instagram, you can get a pretty good idea of the type of food you would see in her cookbook! Light, fresh, easy and simple.
I was immediately drawn to this oil-free vegan pesto that I’m sharing with you today because I loved how easy it was and I LOVE basil. Oh, and I LOVE pasta and wanted something more on the filling side. This has a strong flavor from all of the fresh basil and bold flavor of pine nuts.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
- Fresh basil
- Pine nuts
- Garlic
- Pasta: I used gluten-free penne, but use whatever you like.
- Grape tomatoes
- Nutritional yeast
- Lemon juice
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PESTO OIL FREE
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Cut all the tomatoes in half and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are bubbling and slightly wrinkled.
Step 2: Cook pasta according to the package directions.
Step 3: To make the pesto: blend all the ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted mine completely smooth. As noted above, I also added lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Add more salt if needed
Step 4: Toss pasta with the pesto and serve with the roasted tomatoes.
MORE VEGAN OIL FREE SAUCES
- Vegan Chimichurri Sauce
- Poblano Pepper Cream Sauce
- Texas BBQ Sauce
- Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- Vegan Lemon Sauce
- Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce
- Creamy Chili Sauce with Pasta
Emily is allowing me to share this beautiful recipe for her cookbook with you all today! You can purchase a copy of her cookbook here!
Easy Vegan Pesto (Oil-free!)
Ingredients
- 1 dry pint (275g) grape tomatoes
- 2 cups (232g) uncooked whole grain, gluten-free penne pasta
- 2 cups (48g) lightly packed basil leaves
- 1/4 cup (60g) water
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/4 teaspoon himalayan salt
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 a lemon, or as much as you'd like, to taste
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Cut all the tomatoes in half and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are bubbling and slightly wrinkled.
- Cook the pasta according the package directions.
- To make the pesto: blend all the ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted mine completely smooth. As noted above, I also added lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Add more salt if needed.
- Toss the pesto with the cooked pasta and garnish with extra basil and serve with the roasted tomatoes.
Notes
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My favorite raw food? GIANT RAW SALADS for lunch! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
This is exciting, as I am trying to incorporate more lightly-cooked and raw foods into my diet! I love raw desserts, but I need to expand beyond that.
your recipes are AMAZING!! I have tried countless of your recipes and have never been let down. Thank you for what you do!
That means so much to me Vivian, thank you so much!
This looks amazing! And it can’t get much more simple than that!!
I love salads of all sorts but really love raw truffles! There are so many delicious ways to pack tons of nutrients in a decadent little ball!
Thanks for the idea of using water instead of olive oil. Also I use raw cashews because of the cost of pine nuts and it comes out delish. BTW I and my non vegan bf enjoy your recipes. Thank you!!
frozen banana icecream
Adding this to my menu for next week! Thanks for sharing!
Emily is amazing! Such a fantastic review, Brandi! I love how easy this recipe is. I don’t follow a raw diet so I’m pretty excited that are so many cooked recipes inside.
I love Emily’s recipes and books, she is the queen of simplicity and I could just look at the photos for forever. Plus she uses lots of bananas and dates in her desserts, so of course I’m a fan lol! This Penne Pesto sounds fabulous, your photos look really delicious! I love your review and I’m really excited about this giveaway!
Thank you Natalie! I tried to do her recipe justice with the photos! Her book is amazing!
Love the addition of tomatoes – I always find pesto incomplete without it!
Oh my goodness I cannot WAIT for Emily’s new cookbook! Two of my favorite bloggers linking up for a giveaway?! YES PLEASE! This pesto pasta looks to-die-for.
This is actually a perfect cookbook for me because starting tomorrow some of my friends and I are doing the “Raw Until 4” challenge and we don’t really know what we’re going to eat besides smoothies, salad and raw fruit and vegetables! Emily’s site (and her book) will help us so much! Do you have any meal suggestions/ tips/ advice for us?
My favorite raw recipe is banana ice cream. It’s so simple but I just can’t get over how delicious it is! And it’s healthy! Yay!!
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us and for doing the giveaway! xx
This looks delicious! I love pesto and I really enjoy fresh salads! I guess you could just say I like all healthy foods 🙂
Pesto, banana ice cream and smoothies are a few of my faves!
All kinds of chopped salads – ideally with nuts and avocado!
Pesto is my favorite raw recipe. This one looks delicious! 🙂
i love all kinds of chopped salads! thanks for the giveaway, the book looks gorgeous!
My favorite raw recipe is definitely for your raw caramel white chocolates.
Oh wow, thank you so much! Such a compliment!
I love pesto so much! And tomatoes and pesto are such a match made in heaven! I also love Emily’s blog and all of her recipes. Such a great book to have!
Like this recipe. I am a pesto lover… I add it to lots of things as I find it refreshing and basil is so aromatic. I’m intrigued about adding lemon juice and will definitely try it!
Emily has some really fun recipes, especially for the summer time when I don’t want to cook with any heat and make my house hotter! I love her raw brownies and cookies!
My favorite raw recipe is probably a dessert I make. It’s basically nuts and/or seeds processed with cacao, coconut oil, and a little sweetener and then rolled into balls.
I like raw food best for breakfast such as overnight oats!
I think raw cheezecake with a raspberry sauce….no…wait…..raw tacos…..well…maybe raw carrot ginger soup….OMG!!! I can’t pick just one thing!!!!
Looks delish! Thanks for the opportunity to win!