Kale pesto

A delicious recipe for kale pesto, with both a vegan and vegetarian option. Perfect for use with pasta, in lasagne or as part of a salad.

Kale pesto has probably had more than its fair share of web space lately – perhaps most famously on Jack Monroe’s blog. Because of this I hesitated to even make it in the first place, let alone blog about it. But when I did make it (half a bag of kale and some walnuts were pretty much all we had in the house) I was amazed at how good it was, and even more amazed at how much the kids enjoyed it too. Little R was less keen as she’s attempting to go through a ‘no sauce’ phase at the moment (been there, done that, not planning to let her get away with the antics her big bro used to get up to!) but big R gobbled up a whole portion of pasta and kale pesto, and I stuck the rest of the jar in a lasagne the next day.

Since I originally posted this recipe back in 2014 I’ve experimented further with kale pesto and now usually make a vegan version. I’ll put both this new vegan kale pesto and the original recipe below.

How to make kale pesto

You will need a food processor or high speed blender to make this kale pesto. 

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Kale pesto

A delicious recipe for kale pesto, with both a vegan and vegetarian option. Perfect for use with pasta, in lasagne or as part of a salad.

Course Sauce

Cuisine British, Italian

Keyword kale pesto

Prep Time 10 minutes

Servings 4

Author Mandy Mazliah

Ingredients

For the vegetarian version

• 80 g walnuts toasted and chopped
• 80 g grated parmesan
• 3 garlic cloves
• 75 ml olive oil
• 80 g kale
• juice of 1 lemon

For the vegan version

• 80 g kale
• 80 g walnuts pine nuts or a mix of nuts and pumpkin or sunflower seeds
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 75 ml olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 tsp nutritional yeast optional

Instructions

1. Cut the tough stems out of each kale leaf.
2. Shred and wash well.
3. Put all the ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender and whizz up to a thick paste.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste if desired.
5. Serve with pasta, or keep in the fridge for up to a week in an airtight container.

NB: this isn’t Jack’s recipe – hers is nut free so if you have a nut allergy in your family it’s definitely worth checking out. I adapted this BBC Good Food recipe.

If you like this you might like this vegan rocket pesto with tagliatelle recipe (on my vegan food blog Cook Veggielicious)

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NB: recipe and photographs updated in May 2017.