Brazil Nut Free Vegan Garlic Scape Pesto
Garlic scapes are the curly, bright green shoots that spring up from hardneck garlic bulbs, and they bring a mellow, grassy garlic flavor that makes this pesto genuinely special. Blended with fresh basil, toasted pine nuts, nutritional yeast, and a hit of lemon, the result is a vibrant, deeply savory sauce that works on pasta, grain bowls, crusty bread, or roasted vegetables. The nutritional yeast does the heavy lifting in place of parmesan, adding that umami depth you'd expect from a classic pesto without any dairy involved. Toasting the pine nuts first is a small step that pays off big — it draws out their natural richness and gives the finished pesto a warm, nutty backbone. Every ingredient here is straightforward and easy to source, and the whole thing comes together in a food processor in just a few minutes. If you've been nervous about store-bought pestos hiding unexpected ingredients, making your own from scratch means you know exactly what's in the jar. This is the kind of sauce that disappears fast, so you might want to double the batch.
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Learn more →Ingredients
6 servings
- ⅓ cup pine nuts
- 6 oz garlic scapes (about 10–12 scapes), roughly chopped
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- ½ tsp lemon zest
- ½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1–2 tbsp water, as needed
Instructions
- 1
Toast the pine nuts in a small dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant, about 3–4 minutes. Watch closely, as they can brown quickly. Transfer immediately to a plate to cool.
- 2
Add the garlic scapes, basil, toasted pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and black pepper to a food processor. Pulse 8–10 times until the mixture is coarsely chopped and uniform.
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