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Kale Pesto Sauce with fresh kale, fresh basil, walnuts, nutritional yeast, and cider vinegar. A dairy-free vegan pesto sauce recipe that’s loaded with Vitamins and antioxidants!
Have you ever put kale in your pesto sauce?
It’s quite a marvelous idea.
By adding the leafy green to your classic pesto sauce, you’re achieving a vitamin and antioxidant infusion while not sacrificing any flavor!
This is a great way to get a little extra greens in your diet, and also an awesome way to use up any extra kale you may have in your refrigerator.
The main ingredients in this simple recipe are fresh kale, fresh basil, raw walnuts, nutritional yeast, olive oil, sea salt, and a splash of vinegar.
I made dairy-free pesto (also vegan) by using nutritional yeast and cider vinegar to replace the parmesan.
How to Make Kale Pesto:
Rinse the kale well under lukewarm water. Remove the leaves from the stems and chop the leaves.
Transfer all the ingredients for kale pesto to a food processor except for the oil. Pulse to chop all of the ingredients.
Stream the oil through the opening of the top of the food processor to incorporate it into the ingredients. Use more or less oil depending on the consistency you like.
Store kale pesto in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Looking for ways you can customize this kale pesto sauce recipe? Here are some options.
Recipe Customizations:
- If you aren’t dairy-free, you can omit both the nutritional yeast and cider vinegar and add 1/2 to 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese.
- Use all kale and skip the basil. Note that doing so will omit the herby flavor from the sauce, but it will still taste lovely (in my opinion).
- Change the amount of oil depending on how thick or thin you like your pesto sauce.
- Swap out the walnuts for pine nuts.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
Put simply, it adds deliciousness to everything it touches, and it is jam packed with nutrients and health benefits!
Kale is full of fiber, Vitamins and folate. Walnuts contain some protein and are a decent source of omega fatty acids.
Did you know basil has anti-cancer properties to it? It is a natural antimicrobial, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory. (Source: The Cancer Fighting Kitchen Cookbook).
This quick and easy recipe takes about three and a half minutes to make, and it elevates your pastas, sandwiches, fish and chicken and more!
The earth is full of healing and prevention tools.
I hope you enjoy this superfood kale pesto sauce!
Use kale pesto on my Roasted Eggplant Pesto Sandwich or in my Kale Pesto Pasta Salad.
If you love pesto, also try my Basil Pesto Sauce and my Roasted Beet Pesto!
Kale Pesto Sauce Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup kale leaves, tightly packed
- 2 cups fresh basil
- 1/2 cup walnuts, or pine nuts
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast*
- 1 Tbsp cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp sea salt, to taste
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup avocado oil, or olive oil**
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except oil to a food processor and pulse until chopped.
- Once chopped, turn the food processor on and stream the oil through the opening in the top. I like my pesto sauce thick, but you can add more oil to your personal taste.
- Continue processing until desired texture is reached. Taste pesto for flavor and add more sea salt or nutritional yeast.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate and comment below!
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I love any kind of pesto!!
I love any kind of kale!!
This sounds and looks absolutely delicious. Beautiful pictures!
GOOOORRRRGEOUS photos girl!! I just love this idea, especially adding it to sammies or pasta, I can see myself eating this all year long.
Julia this looks so good! Unfortunately Kale is no where to be found here so all I can do is admire your pesto. Such gorgeous and happy photos:)
I have been using pesto sauce lately instead of red sauce for our homemade pizza and this would be great!
That’s a nice surprise. Kale pesto is a fantastic idea! Hope to get a bunch of lacinato at the local farmer’s market…
I keep a bottle of (homemade) basil pesto in the fridge. It’s so useful, so great on so many things.
I really, REALLY like kale, so I’m definitely trying this!
Great minds think alike! I just made kale pesto the other day and haven’t posted my recipe yet. I am sad the pancake project is coming to an end, but super pumped for all of your delicious recipes to come. Happy weekend lady!
Yippyy! Can’t wait to see your recipe! I bet you made all sorts of incredible dishes with it too! You have yourself a wonderful St. Paddy’s Day!
I love making pesto out of other greens. I have never seen one from kale before, but what a wonderful idea. Talk about pesto with healthy properties!!
Kale pesto pancakes? Next week. Do it. Just kidding.
I love pesto… soooo much. And it just seems so festive and perfect for this weekend, and.. gasp.. healthy. I soo want to try this 🙂
I’ve never had kale before and have been wanting to give it a try…this looks like the perfect place to start!
I am having a hard time finding this recipe! As mentioned before, the link took me to the main page, and a search yielded no results. Help?
Hey Michelle, so sorry for the confusion. The kinks are being worked out right now. I promise the recipe will be up either on Food Fanatic or my page momentarily.
Annnnd we’re up and running! Sorry about that Michelle, and thanks for your patience. The kale recipe is on
my siteFood Fanatic now.Thank you for the response Julia! Can’t wait to try it 🙂 Yum yum! Have a great weekend!
I might just be a little slow this morning, but I couldnt find the recipe? I clicked over and it wasn’t on the page you linked (the main page) and a search for kale pesto didnt find anything. Am I missing something? I haven’t had any coffee yet…
This looks like a kale recipe i would actually try…. i dont really like kale otherwise… ps the lin kd idn’t work for me
Oops, that was an unexpected mishap! Problem solved: recipe is up on the Food Fanatic site now. 🙂
Oh yes…i was expecting a pancake! But you shall be excused for another week because the pesto looks gorgeous. And bonus points for the extra info on health benefits!