Fresh Easy Pesto

Our Fresh Easy Pesto boasts a vibrant blend of aromatic basil leaves, rich extra virgin olive oil, toasted nuts, and zesty garlic. It’s super simple to make and takes a boring dish to amazing in, like, 5 minutes!

😎🍉THIS FRESH EASY PESTO RECIPE IS FEATURED IN OUR SUMMER ANTI-INFLAMMATORY MEAL PREP SESSION + GUIDE! CLICK HERE TO SEE IT IN ACTION AND GET THE FREE MEAL PRINTABLE MEAL PREP GUIDE!

Not only does this Fresh Easy Pesto recipe provide an explosion of flavors, but it also offers a myriad of health advantages. The basil leaves contain essential oils that have been found to possess anti-inflammatory properties, helping to reduce swelling and pain.

The extra virgin olive oil is packed with heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, known for their anti-inflammatory effects, while also providing a luscious texture to the pesto.

Ingredients

Basil

Basil is such an aromatic herb, and summer dishes are perfect with it! Honestly, herbs like this can get so expensive that we just grow them on our back patio. I even have friends who grow them in their kitchen window boxes to enjoy the health and flavor benefits.

I know you may be tempted to buy the chopped basil at the grocery store, but I beg you to use super fresh, it makes such a difference!

Parmesan

Parmesan is another ingredient that can get real pricey, real quick. Grating your own is always the best option, because when a manufacturer does it, they add some type of starch to keep it from clumping. This can affect any recipe you’re making. So I always advise buying a block of parmesan and grating it yourself.

Extra virgin olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil is the perfect oil for this recipe, because you’re not cooking it. SO many food bloggers and cooking websites have it wrong on this! EVOO has a very low smoke point, which means if you cook with it, it will burn and oxidize easily.

That’s why fresh sauces and dressings like this recipe are perfect for the bold flavor of extra virgin olive oil. If you don’t have any on hand, you can sub avocado oil.

Minced garlic

Garlic can be tricky to keep on hand because it tends to dry out really fast if it’s not super fresh. And it can be tricky to find super fresh. Even though it’s super convenient to keep a jar of minced garlic on hand in the fridge, I don’t always advise it because they add preservatives to keep it from going bad.

That being said, if I’ve had a run of our grocery store giving me dried-out old garlic cloves, I’ve been guilty of throwing my hands up and buying a jar of minced. Do what’s best for your household. 🙂

Pine nuts

Pine nuts are really thought of as essential to classic pesto recipes. But many people are allergic to nuts, and they can also get really expensive. There’s been a huge trend in using different types of nuts in leu of pine nuts, so it’s absolutely ok to sub out a different type of nut, or just omit them altogether.

I will say I love experimenting with different flavors, so if you’re a curious cook like me, try some walnuts or cashews!

Instructions

Literally the only prep you need for this is to throw it into the blender in the order the recipe says. Done and done!

Notes

Make sure to store this in a sealed container, and you can even double or triple this to make sure you have enough on hand for a couple of weeks!

😎🍉THIS FRESH EASY PESTO RECIPE IS FEATURED IN OUR SUMMER ANTI-INFLAMMATORY MEAL PREP SESSION + GUIDE! CLICK HERE TO SEE IT IN ACTION AND GET THE FREE MEAL PRINTABLE MEAL PREP GUIDE!

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