Traditional pesto is made with genovese basil, pine nuts, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. The flavor is rich, and a little goes a long way. This healthy version has all the flavor of the traditional version without the oil or cheese, and just a touch of fat in the nuts. For a really low-fat version, make the sauce without the nuts and use low-fat silken tofu. And for an unusual twist, try it with arugula instead of the basil.
From Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook
By Del Sroufe,
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Chef Del Sroufe is co-owner and executive chef of Wellness Forum Foods, a whole-food, plant-based meal delivery and catering service in Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook and Better Than Vegan. Del teaches cooking classes and helps people transition to a healthy plant-based diet.
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Comments (8)
Really great. Tweak to your taste of course. I sliced whole tomatoes in small pieces to brighten it up and mixed with brown rice. Plenty leftover.
This recipe is a great! I’m learning that I should pretty much double the spices on these recipes to get the flavor profile that I’m looking for. I used roasted sunflower seeds due to nut restrictions at work. I also squeezed a 1/2 lemon into the recipe to make the flavors really pop.
Delicious! Tasty! Excellent! I’m
New to vegan cooking and this was surprisingly good!
Tasted off. Very disappointing. I made it with spaghetti and cannelloni beans and added broccoli and cherry tomatoes.
Had to add salt and pepper – but was very tasty ! Husband and daughter didn’t know it had tofu!!
I was trying to recreate a pesto recipe from the Luca film with my boyfriend, and found this to be the most compatible with ingredients I already had on hand at home!
Initially, I was skeptical about the lack of oil, but I was pleasantly surprised at how versatile this recipe was. I subsituted toasted pine nuts for cashews, basil for spinach, and nutritional yeast for vegan mozzarella. It turned out wonderfully!
In the future, I will probably be adding more than the recommended amount of garlic, and salt, and will be adding more liquids to allow for a smoother texture.
Overall, it was a wonderful recipe and I will most definitely be making it again!
To date, this is my most favorite recipe from FOK. I used it over some vegan spinach fettucine & it was great. I plan to look for some vegan tortellini the next time I make the recipe. It is super easy & quick to make. Finding enough basil was a little difficult in my local store though, so I had to go with lightly dried basil instead of fresh.