Can you use a blender instead of a food processor for pesto?
Short answer, yes. One of my favorite summer sauces is Homemade Pesto in a Blender. Why use a blender? Because I hate pulling out my food processor, and my blender is always out and ready for use (I am a lazy cook!).
My mom always plants basil in her herb garden in the summer, so she always has a ton of fresh basil to use up. The best thing about pesto though is you don't have to just use basil. You can add spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, parsley... the options are endless.
I love topping my pizzas with pesto, using it as a spread on sandwiches, and of course pouring it over a big bowl of pasta!
How to make Homemade Pesto in a Blender:
- Dump basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, lemon, garlic and salt into a blender.
- Pulse the blender while slowly pouring in the olive oil.
- Blend for another 30 seconds or so, until everything is thoroughly combined.
Here are some other ingredients you could add or swap out:
- Add a handful of spinach or kale
- Swap out pine nuts for walnuts, pecans, or almonds
- Add sun-dried tomatoes
What can I use instead of pine nuts in pesto?
If you are not a fan of pine nuts, you can substitute them for any other nut! Some of my favorites are pecans or walnuts.
If you love this recipe I would love to know! You can rate this recipe and leave a comment, and tag a photo on Instagram @hungrywaitress! Here?s the recipe:
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Homemade Pesto in a Blender
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
Description
This recipe makes 1 cup of pesto. Making Homemade Pesto in a Blender is an easy way to enjoy this summery sauce. Enjoy Pesto over pasta, sandwiches, or pizza! It's so versatile.
Ingredients
- 2 cups packed basil leaves, if you don't have enough basil, you can mix in spinach or parsley
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- Juice of one lemon
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 garlic cloves, optional
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: pesto, basil pesto, pine nuts, sauce
What should you serve with pesto?
Top this Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Zucchini and Mushroom Pasta (to make this pesto vegan just skip the Parmesan Cheese)
Or this Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Artichokes!
Or this Easy Chicken Pesto
ruben sainz
Excellent, I'm also a lazy cook, thanks for the receipe
thehungrywaitress
You're welcome!
Nathan
I don't usually leave comments on these, but it came out excellent. Didn't have walnuts so I used pecans. You just have to be patient with the blender. Gonna throw it on some chicken and asparagus angel hair tonight.
LCR
Thanks for confirming blender. My food pro is packed away. Easy to follow
★★★★★
Debbie
I just made this in my blender, it worked! I excitedly bought all the ingredients for pesto but later dreaded pulling out my giant food processor. I roughly chopped my basil & nuts (I used walnut) before adding them to blender. I needed my rubber spatula to work the leaves down after each of the first few pulses before it would really catch. Thank you for letting me leave my food processor hidden away.
★★★★
thehungrywaitress
Haha! I feel the same way about my food processor... that's why I throw everything in the blender!
thehungrywaitress
Of course you can add garlic! As much as you like.
Tom
Juice of one small lemon was just perfect
thehungrywaitress
Good! Thank you!
notafanofcookingbutmustlearn
Made alot of pesto before and none was really that amazing. this recipe was a knock out! Love it so much! Thank you! Added juice of 1/2 of a lemon and some garlic and it was perfection.
★★★★★
thehungrywaitress
Thank you!
Sharon Cooper
Can I freeze
thehungrywaitress
Yes! You can freeze this pesto for about 3-4 months
Ronda
Awesome! My lemon was a little too large but fortunately, I like tartness! Just ‘taste tested’ my 1st batch (as I know there will be more) on some linguine! Perfection!
★★★★★
jackie
How hard was it to clean the blender? I have a vitamax but only use it for smoothies.
thehungrywaitress
It's not too bad. I have a Ninja and it only takes a few minutes to rinse out and clean. I do make sure to get all of the olive oil out using a paper towel.
Anonymous
You can fill the blender with water and then pulse away. It makes cleaning so much easier!
Chelsea
How many servings does this make? Will it be enough for about 9 servings of pasta?
thehungrywaitress
I'd say it's enough for one pound of pasta (which is four servings) ... if you like a lot of sauce. A trick I use if I don't have enough sauce is reserve a cup of the pasta water before you drain it, and add it to the pasta after you toss it with the sauce. It will spread the sauce a little farther.
Barbara Tocco
Had lots of Spring mix lettuces and some leftover basil leaves. Toasted pine nuts first on stove. Finally after all in blender it finally started blending! Delicious and added some smoked sea salt and 3 cloves garlic! Will freeze! Thank you for inspiration!!!
★★★★★
thehungrywaitress
Yum! You're welcome!
Marilyn Levy
Great and easy recipe!
★★★★★
Rutvik
It is looks healthy with the organic and real taste. Made alot of pesto before and none was really that amazing. this recipe was a knock out!. Can you please share more with us?
thehungrywaitress
Yes! Thank you
Vrushali
I tried this recipe and it's delicious and organic. I never tried this type of pesto. his really increase my knowledge about this Looking forward to such helpful and lovely recipes.
Ruhanika
I tried this recipe as well as it's scrumptious and also natural. I never tried this sort of pesto. his truly raise my expertise concerning this Expecting such valuable and wonderful recipes.
★★★★★
Susan Dubose
After making a skewered caprese salad with basil, I used the remaining basil leaves plus the olive oil and spices from the marinated mozzarella pearls to make this pesto recipe. Very easy to make. Fresh is best!
★★★★★
Anonymous
Can I use lime instead of lemon?
Leanna Myers
It won't taste like traditional basil pesto but you can!
Vera
I tried with my Vitamix blender and the result is far from the actual Italian pesto but the taste was good. The Vitamix made the sauce very "velvety" which is nice but the metal blender affected the colour (the real pesto is pale green).
★
janet blocker
This was the best and easiest recipe! Thanks soooooo much. I did have to add some water as my blender is an older gal and didn't process the pesto unless I did add some water. I still loved this and will be for sure making this again. Actually, this will be my go to for pesto!
★★★★★
Leanna Myers
Thank you so much! This makes me so happy!
phyllis
very easy! i still had basil growing out of control in my garden so pesto it was! i had tried a different recipe before and just couldn't get it going to get it smooth. my new blender handled it like a charm! thanks
★★★★
Debra
Great, easy recipe! I wasn't sure if my blender was sufficient for the job, but it did fine. Also it was helpful to learn about possible substitutions. I had pecans on hand, but not pine nuts, so used those. Success!