This kale walnut pesto is a simple and versatile sauce to add a little something extra to your favorite pasta. It's also great as a vegetable dip or as a condiment for your favorite veggie burgers and dogs! If you don't have kale, any hearty green will do.
This recipe makes about 1 cup of kale walnut pesto. Plenty for a pound of pasta. Be sure to set aside some pasta water for thinning the sauce, so it coats the pasta nicely.
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Kale Walnut Pesto
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- ½ bunch kale, discard stems and chop
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- Juice from ½ lemon to start, up to 1 lemon to taste
- ¼ cup olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a teaspoon of salt and the kale. Cook for 5 minutes and transfer the kale to a colander, using a slotted spoon.
- Combine the kale, walnuts, garlic, nutritional yeast, olive oil, and lemon juice in a food processor. Process until smooth. Add salt and pepper and more lemon to taste.
Naomi
This is one of my favorite go to recipes. I’ve made it many times and always get rave reviews. Easy to swap out the walnuts for whatever nuts you have on hand. Great combo of slightly sweet, tangy, and umami. I think it’s highlighted best as a dip with crackers. Highly recommend. And easy to make!
beentheredonethat
How big is half a bunch of kale
Katie Koteen
Maybe 3-4 ounces without stems. Does that help?
Madhavi Mylavarapu
I made this yesterday for my daughter’s birthday party, and served it as a dip with raw veggies. It was a great hit with both adults and children. They just raved about it....Thanks so much for such an awesome recipe. I am going to try it with pasta, and as a pizza sauce.
Will look up your other vegan recipes as well!
Katie Koteen
Glad to hear it was a success!
Theresa Cyrus
Hello Katie,
I absolutely love the idea of this recipe, do you know the shelf life? 🙂 Thank you!
Katie Koteen
My best guess is 3-4 days!
Katherine
Hi Katie,
I loved this Kale Walnut Pesto recipe.
I would love to feature it in our website, Greenthickies.com. I will not be posting the actual recipe, but will only use one image form the post and a small quote and link directly back to the original post in your site.
Will that be all right?
Thanks a lot :),
Katherine,
Greenthickies.com
Katie Koteen
Yeah, absolutely! Thanks for asking 🙂