The classic Italian nutty sauce called Pesto is delicious with many uses. Most people love pesto as a pasta sauce, but you can use it to dress salads, for dipping, or as a sandwich spread. The original method of creating pesto lends it its name since it means “to pound,” referring to the original preparation method of using a wooden or stone pestle and mortar. Today most people make pesto in a blender or food processor.

However, is pesto vegan? Well, it depends. The original recipe for the creamy Genovese pesto calls for the following ingredients: basil, pine nuts, crushed garlic, salt, olive oil, and a grated hard cheese like Parmesan. Consequently, pesto made with these ingredients is not Vegan.

Let’s get the nutty sauce explained. Which pesto is and which isn’t vegan?

Is Pesto Vegan?

The first modern recipe for pesto is found in the cookbook La Cuciniera Genovese by Giovanni Battista Ratto, written in 1863.

However, we know that something similar to pesto was consumed by the Romans, who would make a paste called moretum. They would grind a mixture of herbs with garlic and cheese. The Ligurians adapted the recipe to match the readily-available ingredients in their little corner of northern Italy, calling it Pesto Genovese.

In the original recipe for pesto, the addition of cheese makes it non-vegan because it’s an animal product made with milk curdled with animal rennet (which often comes from the lining of the animal’s stomach). But all the other ingredients – the pine nuts, garlic, salt, and olive oil vegan.

Some shop-bought pesto sauces also include egg lysosome, used as a preservative. Therefore, although they may not contain cheese, they are still not vegan.

Always check the label of shop-bought pesto to ensure none of the ingredients are non-vegan. When eating out, ask your server about their pesto before ordering food with pesto added.

Here’s a list of non-vegan pesto since they all include cheese:

• Classico Traditional Basil Pesto
• 365 by Whole Foods Pesto Basil
• BARILLA Rustic Basil Pesto Sauce
• Prego Basil Pesto Sauce
• Cucina & Amore Genovese Basil Pesto

However, you can buy vegan pesto or make your own, switching the traditional cheese with tofu, vegan cheese, or nutritional yeast.

Here is a few pesto-inspired shop-bought sauces that can easily replace pesto in your kitchen:

• Biona Organic Pesto – Contains organic basil, extra virgin olive oil, and pine nuts.
• Trader Joe’s Vegan Pesto – Made with kale, cashew butter, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
• Zest Vegan Basil Pesto – Contains Brazil nuts, cashew nuts, and hazelnuts.
• Amore Pesto Paste – A vegan pesto ideal for sandwiches because of its paste form.
• Organico Jarred Vegan Pesto – This pesto contains tofu, cashew nuts, and walnuts.

Foods Made with Non-Vegan Pesto

Pesto is used in several Italian dishes, including pizza toppings, soups, sandwiches, and salads. Sometimes it’s added to bread dough for its flavor. When ordering in or at a restaurant, ask them to omit the pesto unless they also make a vegan version.

Homemade Vegan Pesto

You can deviate from the original pesto recipe if you feel like a flavorful basil pesto by making this easy 5-minute vegan pesto from Minimalist Baker. The recipe combines fresh basil leaves with all the other classic pesto ingredients, substituting the cheese with lemon and nutritional yeast.

In this recipe from Love & Lemons, you can see that you can replace half the basil with other herbs and greens like parsley, arugula, spinach, or kale. You can skip the basil entirely, using a blend of fresh mint, spinach, parsley, cilantro, or any other greens you prefer. Usually, 50% of each herb works best.

With most pesto recipes, you can swap the pine nuts with any raw nuts you have at home. Cashews are very similar in texture to pine nuts, and they are an excellent option, but so are almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, macadamia nuts, or even sunflower seeds.

If you don’t have nutritional yeast (which gives the pesto a cheesy flavor and several B vitamins), use some tofu for added texture and flavor, or add some capers or sundried tomatoes to add a savory flavor.

Other Versions of Pesto

Pistou, the French version of pesto, originates in Provence, a French region near Italy. Like the Italians use pesto to adorn their minestrone, the French serve their version that includes basil, parsley, grated cheese, and crushed garlic, with a similar soup known as soupe au pistou.

Spain is known for its red paste, romesco, made with sweet red peppers, romesco chili peppers, pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil. As you can see, the ingredients used to make romesco are vegan.

We also see Italian influences in several South American countries like Peru and Argentina. In Peru, they serve tallarines verdes, a dish named after tagliarini pasta, made with green pesto. They enhance the green color by adding spinach, but the original version is not vegan because it includes cheese.

In Argentina, chimichurri sauce evolved from the idea of pesto brought by immigrants from Genoa in the 19^th century. This delicious vegan sauce requires finely chopped parsley mixed with garlic, olive oil, chili, dried oregano, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Alternatives for Pesto

Besides using a vegan pesto variety, you can substitute pesto on your pizza, pasta, or salad with other ingredients.

Basil oil is olive oil infused with basil, adding a taste similar to pesto to your dishes. You can also top your pasta or pizza with a vegan-tomato-based sauce or replace pesto with a vegan alfredo sauce made with cauliflower, cashews, and nutritional yeast.

Tips

Final Take

Is pesto vegan? In exploring the origins of pesto, we discovered that the original version is not vegan since it contains cheese for added creaminess.

However, if you’re vegan and like the taste of pesto, there’s no reason why you cannot enjoy it. You can make a homemade version using nutritional yeast to replace the cheese or buy one of several excellent vegan brands from a store near you or online.

FAQs

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