This recipe reimagines classic pesto with three intentional, plant-based twists: nutritional yeast for umami, raw cashews for an ultra-creamy texture, and a quick blanching step to keep the color electric-green and fresh. It’s a reliable vegan staple that proves you don’t need dairy to achieve a rich, well-emulsified sauce.

I’ve made plenty of pesto variations over the years, using everything from walnuts to sunflower seeds. While I appreciate the earthy bitterness of a walnut pesto, I find myself returning to this cashew-based version for its balance. It has the bright, herbaceous punch you expect from basil, but with a creaminess that can be hard to achieve without cheese.

The challenge with vegan pesto is to satisfying savoriness without parmesan. A challenge of pesto making generally is to prevent the sauce from turning a dull, oxidized brown.

This vegan pesto with basil and cashews solves both problems, leaning on nutritional yeast for umami and opting to blanch the basil for color. While there are alternative types of pesto that I make regularly, like creamy tahini pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto, this is the classic recipe that I return to again and again.

Why Cashews?

While pine nuts are the traditional choice for pesto, unroasted cashews have become my standard. They have a naturally high fat content and a buttery quality that creates a very smooth sauce.

Unlike walnuts or pine nuts, which can sometimes have a strong, tannic aftertaste, cashews provide a neutral base that allows the basil to remain the focus of the recipe.

Cashews also happen to be more affordable than pine nuts, which are famously expensive This makes it easy to keep the pesto recipe in a regular meal prep rotation.

The Blanching Method

If you’ve ever stored leftover pesto, you know how quickly it can lose its bright green hue. This is due to oxidation. While oxidation doesn’t affect the flavor of pesto, it makes the sauce look less fresh and can be visually unappealing.

I’ve found that a quick blanching step—dropping the basil leaves into boiling water for about 15 seconds followed by an ice bath—is the best way to “set” the color of pesto. It preserves that vivid green for days in the fridge.

Beyond the color, blanched basil is much softer than raw leaves, which means it breaks down into a silkier, more uniform sauce during blending.

Notes on the process

Because the size of basil bunches and the moisture content of the leaves can vary, you should feel empowered to tweak the consistency of your vegan pesto once the food processor is running.

• Processing the Base: I like to pulse the garlic, cashews, nutritional yeast, and salt together before adding other ingredients. This ensures the nuts are finely ground and the garlic is fully incorporated before the basil and oil are added.
• Emulsifying the Oil: For the best texture, I add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream while the processor is running. This helps to emulsify the oil with the greens and nuts, preventing the sauce from feeling greasy or separated.
• Adjusting the Finish: If the pesto feels too thick for your needs, you can thin it with a tablespoon of water or extra oil. Taste it at the very end; sometimes a tiny extra pinch of salt or a squeeze of lemon juice is needed to really make the basil flavors pop.

In the recipe card below, I’ve included instructions for both the blanching step and a standard raw basil version, should you want to skip the extra step on a busy night.

Step 3: Process

Begin by adding the cashews, garlic and salt to a food processor fitted with the S blade. Add your blanched or raw basil leaves (raw leaves are pictured below) to the processor.

Serving suggestions

Vegan pesto is an all-purpose condiment in my kitchen. It’s excellent tossed with pasta or gnocchi, but I also use it as a sandwich spread, a dip for raw vegetables, or a topping for roasted potatoes.

I particularly like to swirl a spoonful of my pesto into brothy white beans for a ribbon of bright color, lemony flavor, and richness from the fat.

It’s a great feeling to have a jar of homemade pesto in the fridge. I hope this becomes one of those back-pocket recipes you lean on whenever your basil plant is overachieving or you need a quick way to bring a bowl of pasta to life.

xo