I don’t know about you, but I just really like the taste of fresh peppermint. So much, I started putting it in my smoothies, juices, on pizza and on my avocado toast. Last week when I decided to make pesto, I said to myself: ‘I think peppermint will work really really well in this.’ I tried and it does. Ta da: peppermint pesto!

And the best thing is, my kids tried it without complaining (thank you Incredible Hulk for helping me sell ‘green food’ to my kids (read this and this post to learn how I got my kids to eat green veggies).

Anyway.. Pesto 2.0. is here. Turn on your blender everyone! Let’s make some peppermint pesto!

So you probably all know that traditional pesto Genovese consists of parmesan, pine nuts, olive oil, fresh basil leaves and garlic, right? To make this peppermint pesto I kept the ratios the same. I just played a bit with the ingredients.

I looked up several recipes for traditional Genovese pesto. All of them say chopping all ingredients by hand will give a better texture than blending and therefor all these recipes tell you not to use a blender. I know, that is a lot of work. Most of us have busy jobs, kids running around and/or just don’t have the patience to wait so long for their pesto to be ready. So preparing your pesto in a blender is totally an option. My solution to a great texture: pulse – stir – scrape down the sides of the blender bowl – repeat, until you reach your desired consistency.

I really love the freshness of the peppermint coming through in this pesto. I hope you will love it as much as I do. It is:

creamy – herby – totally adjustable – versatile – incredibly delicious

I put this peppermint pesto on pasta, pizza on bruschettas as an appetizer and even on my avocado toast for lunch. And tonight I am making homemade oven roasted tomato sauce on top of zucchini noodles. And I know this pesto will make it extra flavorful.

Peppermint pesto

Herby, minty homemade pesto. Delicious on pasta, pizza, avocado toast and bruschetta. Pesto 2.0 is here!

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10

Course Side Dish

Servings 1 small jar

Calories 893 kcal

Equipment

blender (optional)

Ingredients

1 cup peppermint leaves
1 cup kale (or sub other greens like spinach, swiss chard or arugula)
1 cup basil leaves
½ cup parmesan (grated)(to keep it vegan use store bought vegan parmesan or I make it myself using this recipe*)
⅓ cup pistachios (or other nut of choice like pine nuts, walnuts or even almonds)
¼ cup extra virgen olive oil
3 cloves garlic

Instructions

If you are not using a blender, start by finely chopping all ingredients; nuts, cheese, garlic, herbs and greens). If you do use a blender, roughly chop parmesan and greens before adding them to the blender
When you have chopped everything finely, all you do is add all ingredients to a jar and stir. Make sure there is a thin layer of olive oil covering it all. This way your pesto will keep longer in the refrigerator.
If you are using a blender, add all ingredients to your blender. To get a great texture use the pulse mode and keep scraping down the sides until you get the right consistency.

Notes

I highly recommend using Sophia’s recipe from Veggies don’t bite to make it yourself: www.veggiesdontbite.com/grateable-vegan-parmesan-cheese/

Nutritional information:

the information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Keyword contains nuts, gluten free, peppermint, pesto, vegan option

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